Carpenter bees can cause a lot of damage to wooden structures such as sheds, decks and house siding. You can recognize carpenter bee tunnels by the circular holes chewed into the wood and the small piles of sawdust left behind. Before Carpenter bees drill into your deckHowever, you have a chance to keep them away by using the herbs they hate.
speaking together Houses and gardensPest control expert Georgios Liakopoulos explained that some of the plants used to repel carpenter bees include strong-scented options such as mint, citronella and eucalyptus. “If you plant it around your property, the bees will stay away from it.” he says. “Drop repellents near wooden structures to create a natural barrier against carpenter bees.” Other gardening blogs and pest control services assert that the powerful scents emitted by such plants, as well as kitchen herbs such as thyme and basil, serve to repel carpenter bees by taking away their sense of smell, and they tend to avoid any place where their senses are not fully functioning.
However, it is important to note that no scientific data confirms that planting strong scented plants is an effective method of repelling carpenter bees. In fact, there’s a decent anecdotal argument that at least some herbs — like thyme (as well as rosemary) — actually attract carpenter bees rather than repel them. It’s also worth taking online information with a grain of salt: Many online beekeepers and pest services say herbs like basil, mint and eucalyptus flowers can actually attract bees. However, these sites often focus on Europeanized or Africanized bees. In fact, there are about 4,000 native species of bees in the United States, including carpenter bees, and not all of them respond to the same plant in the same way. You may need to resort to trial and error to see which plants work best for your yard.
Supplement the herbs planted with this trick
While they may not necessarily be welcome on your property because of the damage they cause, carpenter bees are still important pollinators, essential to the health of native ecosystems. Like other pollinating bees, carpenter bees will seek out attractive plants to feast on. The small purple flowers of thyme, for example, make a perfect food container and are more likely to attract rather than repel these bees.
So, can you use herbs like mint or basil to your advantage against carpenter bees? Simple: Use essential oils. Since the naturally repellent chemicals present in herbs are distilled and concentrated into essential oils, you can make a more powerful repellent than planting them.
Try mixing peppermint essential oil with castile soap and others A bee repellent scent like almond oil To make a spray, you can apply it to areas of wood attacked by carpenter bees. It is most effective when applied several times in early spring, before new females occupy any existing nests or tunnels. Do this in the early morning or evening when the bees are not active. That way you don’t antagonize them. Once again, however, it is important to note that these oils, as well as others Holistic deterrent mechanisms such as wind chimesChemical insecticides (especially with established nests) or carpenter bee-impervious materials such as metal or heavy-duty vinyl are not as effective as using nests.
