Bees are usually fuzzy and chubby compared with wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets. All bees eat nectar and pollen, and create honey to feed themselves and their larvae (the worm-like baby bees). Some bees are solitary and live in the ground. Some, like honey bees, live in hives that they usually build in trees, but sometimes become pests when they build nests in building voids like attics, crawl spaces, or between walls. Some people are very allergic to bee stings and even a single sting can be life-threatening. For these people, control of bees around their home is essential.

The main types of pest bees in our area are carpenter bees, honey bees, and bumble bees.

Carpenter Bees

Carpenter bees look similar to bumble bees. They are large and fly slowly. They can do a lot of damage to wood.

The female drills neat round holes about the size of a dime in wood of siding and fascia, sometimes high off the ground. Then, she drills nest galleries at a 90 deg angle to the hole, parallel to the grain of the wood. She lays eggs and provisions them with food for the hatching larvae. The galleries damage the wood, which eventually needs replacement. Females can sting, but usually do not bother people.

Male carpenter bees often buzz around the nests and dive-bomb people near the nest. Males cannot sting, but can be very annoying. Their abdomens are a distinctive shiny black on the end, and their thick black legs dangle down. Females can sting but usually don't bother people.

Carpenter bees prefer bare, somewhat damaged wood so painting wood and replacing damaged wood deters them. Professional help is recommended to get rid of carpenter bees.

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Honey Bees

Honey bees are abundant in our area. Honey bees become pests when they have a hive inside a structure or very close to a structure. They will defend a nest. The honey in the nest can attract other pests. The honey in an abandoned or damaged nest can stain structures, and attract beetles, ants, and grow mold. Unlike wasps, bees maintain and enlarge the same nest year after year, so the colony must be killed to remove the nest.

Honey bees are 3/8 to 3/4 inches long. They rarely sting unless provoked. Each bee can sting only once as its stinger is left in the skin. When stung remove the stinger by scraping it out with the back of a knife or credit card etc. Do not try to pull it out, as you will only squeeze in more venom. In the wild, they nest in hollow trees, wall voids and other protected cavities. Colonies usually survive the winter on the honey collected during the summer. There may be up to 60,000 bees in a colony.

Because they are essential to crops and flowers, there are some legal restrictions on bee pest control. Unless they are bothering people or someone in a household is allergic to them, they should be left alone to do their beneficial work.

As of 2006, there are no known "killer bees" in the Boston Metrowest area. If bees seem to be aggressive, they might be carpenter bees, wasps or hornets, or might be honey bees with a hidden nest nearby or bees ready to swarm (form a new colony).

Removal of an active nest can be dangerous because the disruption can cause normally gentle bees to sting. Removal is best left to a professional. The nest removal can cause structural damage that needs to be repaired. Marlboro Pest Control can remove nests with minimal damage, and offers a carpentry service to repair any unavoidable damage caused by removal.

Summary | Carpenter Bees | Honey Bees | Bumble Bees | Top of Page | Pest Guide

Bumble Bees

Bumble bees are 3/8 to 7/8 inch long, robust and hairy and can sting many times. They usually build nests in compost piles or some other material such as insulation in walls. Only fertilized queens survive over winter and establish new colonies in the spring.

Summary | Carpenter Bees | Honey Bees | Bumble Bees | Top of Page | Pest Guide