- 4 days ago
Carpenter bees can hollow out your wood long before you notice the damage, and this old-fashioned guide shows how to stop them fast with simple tools and careful timing. Elias explains how to spot the tobacco-colored stains that mark hidden tunnels, why the bee flying outside is not the real problem, and how the eggs deep in the wood are what keep the infestation coming back.
Using a practical step-by-step approach, he walks through treating the tunnel, waiting before sealing it, packing the opening with steel wool or wire mesh, and patching the wood so the bees cannot chew back out. He also explains why bare, weathered, unfinished wood attracts carpenter bees, and how paint, stain, or oil helps prevent fresh damage on barns, decks, porches, fence rails, and eaves.
This is hands-on home repair and pest control advice with an Amish, old-time farming perspective, focused on protecting timber instead of chasing bees every spring. It is useful for anyone searching for carpenter bee removal, wood hole repair, bee tunnel treatment, and natural or low-cost pest prevention.
SEO: Carpenter bee control, carpenter bee removal, how to get rid of carpenter bees, wood damage repair, barn pest control, deck and porch bee prevention, and DIY home maintenance. Find practical pest control tips, wood protection methods, and old-fashioned repair advice for keeping unfinished wood safe year after year.
Using a practical step-by-step approach, he walks through treating the tunnel, waiting before sealing it, packing the opening with steel wool or wire mesh, and patching the wood so the bees cannot chew back out. He also explains why bare, weathered, unfinished wood attracts carpenter bees, and how paint, stain, or oil helps prevent fresh damage on barns, decks, porches, fence rails, and eaves.
This is hands-on home repair and pest control advice with an Amish, old-time farming perspective, focused on protecting timber instead of chasing bees every spring. It is useful for anyone searching for carpenter bee removal, wood hole repair, bee tunnel treatment, and natural or low-cost pest prevention.
SEO: Carpenter bee control, carpenter bee removal, how to get rid of carpenter bees, wood damage repair, barn pest control, deck and porch bee prevention, and DIY home maintenance. Find practical pest control tips, wood protection methods, and old-fashioned repair advice for keeping unfinished wood safe year after year.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00You hear it before you see it, a low, heavy droning, right at the eaves of the barn on a
00:06warm morning in May.
00:08You step outside with your coffee, and there they are, big black bees, fat as your thumb, hovering in front
00:16of the wood like they own it.
00:18One of them flies straight at your face, and you swat at it, and it just hangs there in the
00:23air, staring at you.
00:25Your first thought is, those are bumblebees, they are harmless, leave them be.
00:31That is the mistake. That is the thought that cost you a barn beam.
00:36Because those are not bumblebees. Those are carpenter bees.
00:41And while you are standing there deciding they are harmless, the female is above your head, turned upside down,
00:48drilling a hole into your wood as clean and round as if a man took a drill bit to it.
00:55She does not eat the wood. She bores into it, turns, and tunnels along the grain,
01:02eight inches one way, sometimes eight inches the other.
01:05And in those tunnels she lays her eggs.
01:08The wood you raised, the wood your father raised, hollowing out a little more every spring.
01:15I am Elias. My family came over from the Palatinate in 1838, and we have farmed this same ground
01:23in Lancaster County ever since. And I will tell you plainly, carpenter bees are one of the few pests
01:30where the damage you cannot see is far worse than the damage you can.
01:36So, today I am going to show you how the old people dealt with this.
01:40How to kill the ones already in the wood, kill the eggs in the tunnels, seal the holes the right
01:46way
01:47so they cannot dig back out, and protect the wood so they never start again.
01:52No company, no monthly service, no fancy chemical that costs more than the board it is sprayed on.
01:59The old way, by your own hand.
02:02Let me start with the thing nobody tells you, the thing that changes how you see your whole barn.
02:09The bee flying at your face is not the problem.
02:12The bee is just the part you can see.
02:15The problem is the tunnel you cannot see.
02:18I learned this from my grandfather, on the south wall of the old wagon shed.
02:23I was maybe ten.
02:25I saw the bees, and I wanted to swat them, kill them, be done with it.
02:30He put his hand on my shoulder and said,
02:32Elias, you are looking at the wrong thing.
02:36He walked me to the wall, and below where the bees were flying,
02:40there were these long yellow-brown stains running down the wood,
02:44like somebody had dripped tobacco juice down the boards.
02:48I had walked past that wall a hundred times and never once seen it.
02:53That stain, he told me, is how you find them.
02:56That is their leavings, the sawdust and the waste,
03:00pushed out of the hole and run down the wood by the rain.
03:04Find the stain, and right above it you will find the hole.
03:08He showed me, and sure enough, a few inches up,
03:12a hole bored clean into the board,
03:14perfectly round, about the size of your little finger.
03:17Here is why that matters.
03:20You can kill every bee flying in the air today,
03:23every last one, and feel like you won.
03:26And next spring they come right back out of the wood,
03:29a whole new batch, because the eggs were never touched.
03:34The bees in the air are this year.
03:36The eggs in the wood are next year.
03:39If you only deal with what you can see,
03:41you are fighting the same war every single spring and never winning it.
03:47So the old method is built around the tunnel, not the bee.
03:51Four steps, in order, and the order matters more than anything.
03:55Kill what is in the tunnel.
03:57Plug the tunnel so they cannot re-dig.
04:00Patch the wood.
04:02Then protect all the wood so they never bore fresh.
04:06Miss a step, or do them out of order,
04:08and you have wasted your morning.
04:10Quick word before I go further.
04:13The old methods my family uses,
04:15there is more of it than fits in any one video.
04:18I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
04:23The book is the long version.
04:25If you want it, it is there.
04:27I will not mention it again.
04:30Now, before we touch a single hole,
04:33you walk the property.
04:34This is the step everyone skips,
04:37and it is the step that decides whether this works.
04:40You take a slow walk around the barn,
04:43the pole shed,
04:44the fence rails,
04:45the deck,
04:46the porch posts,
04:47the underside of the railings,
04:49the eaves.
04:50Anywhere there is wood that faces the sun
04:53and has gone soft and gray with weather.
04:56Carpenter bees love
04:57bare, weathered,
04:59unfinished soft wood.
05:01They do not much care for hard wood.
05:03They do not like wood that is still living and full of sap,
05:07and they would rather not bore into wood that is painted or sealed.
05:11They want it dry, soft, and bare.
05:14So you walk,
05:16and you look low for the stains,
05:18and you look up for the holes,
05:20and you listen.
05:21On a still day,
05:23you can put your ear near a beam
05:25and sometimes hear them working in there,
05:28a faint rasping.
05:30Mark every hole you find,
05:32a piece of chalk,
05:34a bit of tape,
05:35anything.
05:36You will be surprised.
05:38You think you have three holes,
05:40and you find fifteen.
05:42The English fellow in the suburbs
05:44finds two on his deck rail
05:46and seals them up
05:48and thinks he is done,
05:49and the bees just bore out
05:51through the next board over.
05:53Find them all first,
05:56every one.
05:58Now to the killing,
05:59and here is where I part ways
06:01with how most folks do this today.
06:04The common way now
06:06is a can of foam insecticide,
06:08a strong synthetic thing,
06:11sprayed up into every hole.
06:12It works,
06:13I will not pretend it does not,
06:15but it is a chemical you buy from a company
06:18that you depend on a company
06:20to keep making
06:21and that costs real money
06:23every season.
06:25That is the kind of dependence
06:27my people have always tried
06:28to stay out from under.
06:30In my community,
06:31we lean on what we can do
06:33with our own hands
06:34and what we can keep in the shop
06:37year to year.
06:38The stricter orders
06:40avoid the sprays altogether.
06:42So let me give you
06:43the older ways first,
06:45and then I will be straight
06:46with you about where
06:47a little something extra
06:48earns its keep.
06:51The oldest method,
06:52and the one my grandfather used,
06:54is plain and a little patient.
06:57Late in the evening,
06:59after the bees have gone in
07:00for the night
07:01and the air has cooled,
07:03they are home
07:04and they are still.
07:06That is when you treat.
07:07The simplest old approach
07:10is to take the tunnels
07:11away from them.
07:13You go hole by hole
07:14and you push the killing agent
07:16deep into the gallery
07:18and then you plug it.
07:20For the killing,
07:21the old farmers used
07:23what they had.
07:24A good dusting agent
07:26pushed into the hole
07:27does the work
07:28without a wet spray
07:29you breathe in.
07:31Diatomaceous earth
07:32is the one I trust most
07:34and the one I keep
07:35in the shop by the bag.
07:37It is a soft,
07:39white earth,
07:40a mineral you dig
07:41from the ground,
07:42soft as flour to us,
07:44but sharp as broken glass
07:46to any insect
07:47that crawls through it.
07:49You puff it up
07:50into the tunnel
07:51with a little duster,
07:52a turkey baster works,
07:54a puff bottle works,
07:55anything that will
07:57shoot the powder
07:57back into that
07:59eight-inch gallery.
08:00The bee and the young
08:02that move through
08:03that powder
08:03do not survive it.
08:05It does not rot,
08:07it does not wash away
08:08inside a dry tunnel,
08:10and it is the same earth
08:12I dust along the hen house
08:13and the grain bins.
08:15One bag lasts a farm
08:17a year.
08:19Now I will be plain with you,
08:21because I would rather
08:22you trust me
08:23than be impressed by me.
08:25Powder works best
08:27when you can get it deep,
08:28and these tunnels
08:29turn corners.
08:31For a hole you cannot reach
08:33to the back of,
08:34the honest truth is,
08:36a powder may not reach
08:38the far chamber.
08:39This is the one place
08:41I will tell you
08:42that a bit of borer treatment
08:43from the hardware store
08:45worked into the deep holes
08:47will do a more certain job
08:49on the eggs at the back
08:50than powder alone.
08:53If you choose to use it,
08:54you read the label,
08:56every word of it,
08:57and you keep it off your skin
08:59and away from the children
09:01and the animals.
09:02I am not going to stand here
09:04and tell you
09:05the powder reaches a place
09:06it does not reach.
09:08Use the old way
09:10where it works
09:11and where the tunnel
09:12is too deep
09:13and too curved,
09:14you do what gets the eggs.
09:17The goal is the eggs
09:19at the back of that tunnel.
09:20Whatever honestly reaches them.
09:23Either way,
09:25you treat the hole
09:26and you leave it open.
09:28This is important.
09:30You do not seal it yet.
09:32Give it a day or two.
09:34The bees coming and going
09:36carry the agent deeper
09:37and any bee out foraging
09:39comes home to a treated nest.
09:42Seal it too soon
09:44and you trap living bees inside
09:47and a trapped carpenter bee
09:49does the one thing
09:50you do not want.
09:52It digs a new way out,
09:54a fresh tunnel
09:55through good wood
09:56and now you have made
09:58the damage worse
09:59with your own hands.
10:01My grandfather had a saying
10:03for that kind of mistake.
10:05He said,
10:06a man in a hurry
10:07builds his own second job.
10:10Treat,
10:11wait,
10:12then seal.
10:14Now the ceiling
10:16and this is a fine old trick
10:18that I love
10:19because it costs
10:20almost nothing
10:21and it is permanent.
10:23After the hole is treated
10:25and a day or two has passed,
10:27you do not just smear putty
10:29over the opening.
10:30A bee will chew
10:31straight back out
10:32through soft putty
10:34like it is bread.
10:35You plug the throat
10:37of the hole first
10:38with something
10:39they cannot chew.
10:40The old answer
10:42and still the best
10:43is steel wool
10:45or a bit of fine wire mesh
10:47or even a plug
10:48of copper scouring pad.
10:51Take a wad of it
10:52and you pack it down
10:54into the mouth
10:55of the hole,
10:55firm,
10:56all the way in.
10:58No bee on earth
10:59chews through steel.
11:01Their jaws
11:02are made for wood,
11:04not metal.
11:05They meet that wire
11:06and they are stopped cold.
11:09Then, and only then,
11:11you patch over it.
11:12A bit of wood filler,
11:14the common kind,
11:15smoothed over the steel wool
11:17with a putty knife.
11:18Let it dry.
11:20You can sand it flush
11:22and, this is the part
11:23that matters,
11:24you can paint
11:25or oil over it.
11:27Now the hole is killed,
11:29plugged with metal,
11:30patched,
11:31and finished.
11:32That tunnel
11:33is closed forever.
11:35They will not reopen it
11:37and they will not
11:38chew a new door
11:40through the patch
11:41because the steel
11:42is behind it.
11:44And let me say
11:45the honest thing
11:46the whole pest trade
11:47dances around.
11:49Your goal here
11:50was never really
11:51to kill bees.
11:54Carpenter bees
11:55are good pollinators.
11:56They work the garden.
11:58They work the orchard.
11:59They earn their place
12:00in creation,
12:01same as the honey bee.
12:03The job was never
12:05to wipe them
12:06off the earth.
12:06The job is to
12:08protect the wood.
12:10Sometimes,
12:11getting them out
12:12of the wood,
12:13some die.
12:14That is the cost of it.
12:16But a man who sets out
12:18to kill every bee
12:19he sees
12:20has misunderstood
12:21the whole thing.
12:23You are not
12:24exterminating.
12:25You are defending
12:26your timber.
12:28Keep that straight
12:29in your head
12:30and you will do
12:31this right.
12:32Which brings me
12:33to the last step
12:34and the most important
12:35one.
12:36The step that decides
12:38whether you do this
12:39once or every spring
12:41for the rest of your life.
12:43Prevention.
12:45Here is the plain truth
12:47about carpenter bees
12:48that the whole business
12:49is built on you
12:51not knowing.
12:52They are picky.
12:53They want
12:55bare,
12:56soft,
12:56weathered,
12:57unfinished wood
12:58that faces the sun.
13:01That is nearly all
13:02they will bore into.
13:04So the old farmers
13:06did not fight the bees.
13:07They took away
13:08what the bees wanted.
13:10You finish your wood.
13:13That is the whole secret.
13:15Bare,
13:16gray,
13:17weathered barn board
13:18is an open invitation.
13:20The same board
13:22painted or stained
13:23or oiled
13:24or hard finished
13:25they will mostly
13:27pass right by.
13:28They can still
13:29bore into finished wood
13:31if they are desperate.
13:32I will not tell you
13:33a coat of paint
13:34is a stone wall.
13:35But they hate it.
13:37And given any
13:38bare wood nearby
13:39they will go there
13:41instead.
13:42My grandfather
13:44kept the south
13:45and west faces
13:46of every building
13:47oiled and painted.
13:49The sunny faces
13:50the ones the bees favor
13:52because he knew
13:53that is where they go.
13:55A barn that is kept up
13:57does not feed
13:58carpenter bees.
14:00A barn left
14:01to gray and soften
14:03is a buffet.
14:05So the real prevention
14:06is not a spray at all.
14:08It is upkeep.
14:10Linseed oil
14:11on the bare beams.
14:13A coat of paint
14:14on the fence rails
14:15and the deck
14:16and the porch posts
14:18especially the underside
14:19of the rails
14:20and the eaves
14:21where the wood is soft
14:23and shaded part of the day.
14:25Keep your wood
14:27finished and dry
14:28and hard-faced
14:29and you have solved
14:31carpenter bees
14:32for years at a stretch
14:34with a paintbrush
14:35and an afternoon
14:37not a chemical
14:38you re-buy
14:40every season.
14:41That is the difference
14:43between treating a problem
14:44and ending one.
14:47Now, I want to tell you
14:49who profits
14:50from you not knowing this.
14:52Not as a complaint
14:53just so you see
14:55the shape of the thing
14:56because once you see it
14:58you cannot unsee it.
15:00There is good money
15:01in the bee that flies
15:02and almost none
15:03in the egg
15:04you cannot see.
15:05A monthly service
15:06comes out
15:07sprays the air
15:08and the visible holes
15:10kills this year's bees
15:11and the homeowner
15:13is delighted.
15:14The bees are gone.
15:15And next spring
15:16a new batch
15:17hatches out
15:18of the untouched tunnels
15:19and the service
15:20comes again
15:21and bills again.
15:23The whole arrangement
15:25runs on treating
15:26the part you can see
15:27and leaving
15:28the part you cannot.
15:30Add to that
15:31the traps
15:31sold in every hardware store
15:33those little wooden boxes
15:35that hang from the eave
15:36and catch a bee or two
15:37while fifteen more
15:39bore into the wall
15:40behind them
15:41and the special foams
15:43and the season-long sprays
15:45and you have
15:46an entire trade
15:47built on the
15:48four-inch problem
15:49in front of your eyes
15:50instead of the
15:51eight-inch problem
15:52inside the board.
15:54I do not say
15:56any one person
15:57planned that.
15:58No one sat down
15:59and schemed it.
16:00It is worse
16:01than a conspiracy
16:02because it is a system
16:04nobody had to coordinate.
16:06It simply pays better
16:08to manage the bee
16:09forever
16:10than to end
16:11the problem once.
16:13The old farmer
16:14ended it once
16:15with steel wool
16:17and a paintbrush
16:18because no one
16:19was paying him
16:20to come back
16:20next spring.
16:22He was just trying
16:23to keep his barn
16:24standing for his
16:25grandchildren.
16:26That is a different goal
16:28entirely and it leads
16:30to a different answer.
16:31So that is the whole of it.
16:34Walk the wood
16:35and find every hole
16:36by the stain below it.
16:38Treat the tunnel
16:40and get the eggs
16:41at the back,
16:42the old powder
16:43where it reaches,
16:44something stronger
16:45only where the tunnel
16:46is too deep,
16:47and leave it open
16:48a day or two.
16:49Then plug the throat
16:51with steel wool
16:52no bee can chew,
16:54patch it
16:54and finish over it.
16:56And last,
16:57the one that ends
16:58the war,
16:59finish your bare
17:01sunny wood
17:02so there is nothing
17:03left for them
17:04to want.
17:05Do it in that order
17:07and you will not
17:08be doing it again
17:09next year.
17:10Now I want to hear
17:12from you.
17:13Walk your property
17:14today,
17:15really walk it,
17:16and look low
17:17for those tobacco-colored
17:18stains running
17:19down the wood.
17:21Then come back
17:22and tell me in the comments
17:23how many holes
17:24you found.
17:25I am asking honest
17:27because almost everybody
17:29finds two or three times
17:30what they expected.
17:32Tell me your county
17:33and how old
17:34your buildings are
17:35because the older
17:36the wood
17:37and the longer
17:38it has gone bare
17:39and gray,
17:40the more of them
17:41you will find.
17:42I read these
17:43and I learn the country
17:44by them.
17:46Next time,
17:47I want to take you
17:47to the barn rafters
17:49and show you
17:50the mud daubers,
17:51those long-legged wasps
17:53that build the hard
17:54mud tubes up in the peak,
17:56and which ones
17:57you leave alone
17:58and which ones
17:59you clear,
18:00because the old people
18:01had a particular feeling
18:02about those
18:03that most folks
18:04today have forgotten.
18:06The wood we build with
18:08outlives us
18:09if we tend it.
18:10My grandfather's hand
18:12is on beams
18:13I still use every day,
18:14and the reason
18:16they still stand
18:17is that he knew
18:18the bees wanted
18:19bare wood
18:20and he never
18:21gave them any.
18:22That is the whole
18:23craft of it,
18:24not killing everything
18:26that flies,
18:27but understanding
18:28what a thing wants
18:29and quietly
18:30taking it away.
18:32The people who built
18:33this country
18:34with their hands
18:35knew that
18:36in their bones,
18:37and we are only
18:38just starting
18:39to remember it.
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