You probably already have these items in your home!

If you don't know what a carpenter bee is, the best way I can describe it is that it looks like a bee on steroids. It looks scary huge, but it's actually completely harmless to you.

Male carpenter bees can't sting. But a vicious cycle of panic sometimes ensues. You see, male carpenter bees approach people if said people move too quickly or are too near to their home. Which makes the human freak out, and move faster, which makes the bee freak out and think you're about to do something bad to their home, so they get closer...Like I said, it's a cycle of panic.

Just ignore them and keep moving. They'll leave you alone.

Female carpenter bees CAN sting, but they usually don't. They're pretty chill. They'll only sting you if you touch them. So, don't do that, and you're good.

The only thing that carpenter bees DO seem to cause harm to are our homes. Decks, sheds, porches, anything with wood is fair game to a carpenter bee.

So how do you keep them from destroying your home?

paper bag and plastic bag
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Bags.

Take a bunch of plastic bags, wad them up, and put them in a large brown paper bag. Tie your now big puffy brown bag outside where the bees are doing the most damage, and they'll go away.

Why?

They think the big brown bag is a hornet's nest.

BONUS: Sometimes this keeps wasps away too! No one wants to mess with a hornet...

 

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