09-27-2013, 08:07 PM
A year or so ago I did a little experiment with the black carpenter bees that kept flying through my lanai and freaking me out. They look for signposts. OK, not the signposts you and I look for, but they fly on routes and check things that will mark out their routes. It took a little time, but if you watch them fly by they will stop, hover a bit, and check something out, and then continue on their way.
After a week or so of watching this (early morning in case that's relevant) I switched the stuff they were focused on and all of a sudden I had no carpenter bees flying through the lanai. The odd one would pass by but because the thing they were looking for had been moved they were confused and went off elsewhere - at least for another few days. Then they came back, I assume after they'd figured out the changes. So I took everything off the lanai that they seemed to look at - bright coloured stuff, things with sharp edges, something that just stood out, anything that an insect might consider a marker. They disappeared again.
Although I'm a scientist I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to biology or bee behaviour, but the results were quite interesting, at least to me. This probably won't help with any problems caused by the bees living in your siding or anything like that, but if you have problems with them flying by your head every minute or two, it's a tactic you might want to try; watch them, see what they look for as a marker, and move it somewhere else.
After a week or so of watching this (early morning in case that's relevant) I switched the stuff they were focused on and all of a sudden I had no carpenter bees flying through the lanai. The odd one would pass by but because the thing they were looking for had been moved they were confused and went off elsewhere - at least for another few days. Then they came back, I assume after they'd figured out the changes. So I took everything off the lanai that they seemed to look at - bright coloured stuff, things with sharp edges, something that just stood out, anything that an insect might consider a marker. They disappeared again.
Although I'm a scientist I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to biology or bee behaviour, but the results were quite interesting, at least to me. This probably won't help with any problems caused by the bees living in your siding or anything like that, but if you have problems with them flying by your head every minute or two, it's a tactic you might want to try; watch them, see what they look for as a marker, and move it somewhere else.