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Carpenter Bee Sting: How to Treat and Prevent

“Carpenter bee” refers to hundreds of species of bees that make their nests in wood.

The specific behavior and appearance of each species may vary according to where it lives. For the most part, all carpenter bees tunnel into wood and live alone or with small family units instead of creating a hive.

Carpenter bees aren’t typically dangerous, especially if you leave them alone. This article will cover ways to identify carpenter bees, treat a sting from a carpenter bee, and what to do to avoid getting stung.

If you see a carpenter bee coming toward you, darting and buzzing aggressively, it’s probably a male. Male carpenter bees don’t have a stinger, so they’ll put on a threatening display as a defense mechanism.

Female carpenter bees do have stingers that contain venom, and they’re able to sting more than once.

Females tend to stay close to their eggs, so you’re unlikely to encounter them unless you disturb their nest. Female carpenter bees will only sting if they’re directly provoked.

Carpenter bee stingers contain bee venom. When a carpenter bee stings you, you’ll immediately feel a sharp pain and a burning sensation at the site of the sting and the surrounding area of skin.

Because carpenter bees don’t lose their stinger after they attack, you won’t have to remove a stinger from your skin. But as soon as you get stung by a carpenter bee, you should begin treating the area.

Clean the area of the sting to prevent infection. Use soap and lukewarm water to rinse the skin around the sting, and pat it dry.
You will want to keep inflammation from the sting down as much as possible. Use a cold compress, a cold gel pack, or a cold washcloth on your skin to soothe inflammation.
If pain persists, you may want to take ibuprofen (Advil), acetaminophen (Tylenol), or another over-the-counter pain medication. You may also want to apply an antihistamine cream like Benadryl to reduce swelling.

Carpenter bees are able to sting more than once. If you or your child have multiple bee stings, seek immediate medical attention.

Signs of a bee sting allergy

A bee sting allergy means getting stung is a medical emergency. Difficulty breathing, a swollen tongue, nausea or dizziness, and loss of consciousness are all signs of anaphylaxis and can indicate that an allergic reaction is occurring.

If someone is exhibiting signs of a bee sting allergy, call 911 or local emergency services immediately. While you wait for emergency help to arrive:

Administer epinephrine (EpiPen) if the person has a bee sting kit available.
Roll the person onto their back and elevate their fee above their heart if signs of shock are present.
Reassure the individual, and keep them warm and comfortable.
Monitor vital signs such as breathing and pulse, and be ready to administer CPR if necessary.

The best way to prevent getting stung by a carpenter bee is to avoid the insects, if you can. If you spot a carpenter bee’s nest, don’t use your hands to try to dislodge or remove it.

Carpenter bees tend to reuse the same areas of wood for their nests, year after year. You may be able to figure out where they like to nest and avoid touching their preferred nesting place.

Insecticide can be carefully inserted directly into the hole the bee uses as her nest entrance if you can figure out where she’s holed up.

Nail holes, unpainted wood, and other exposed wood surfaces are attractive places for carpenter bees to build their nests. Wood stain, paint, and sealants can all prevent carpenter bees from nesting in your deck, patio, and outdoor spaces.

If a carpenter bee lands on you, try not to make any sudden movements. Remain calm, and wait for the bee to fly away.

When spending time outdoors, make sure to dispose of any garbage immediately. Fruit juice, fruit pits, and other sweet-smelling snacks can attract bees, so be mindful of that when you’re packing a picnic.

Carpenter bees look similar to bumblebees, and it’s easy to confuse the two.

Carpenter bees in the United States tend to be more black than yellow and have a smooth, shiny black abdomen.

Bumblebees, by contrast, have fuzzy yellow abdomens covered in hair. Carpenter bees also have thick black hair on their hind legs.

Carpenter bees are most active during the spring, coming out in April and May in the northern hemisphere to find partners and mate. Female carpenter bees will then nest, lay their eggs, and die shortly after.

By August, the eggs have hatched and developed into adults. After a short period of activity during the late summer, the bees return to shelter in their nest until the following spring when the life cycle starts over again.

A carpenter bee sting is about as painful as any other type of bee sting. Carpenter bees can sting more than once, which makes getting stung slightly more concerning.

You can usually treat a carpenter bee sting at home, and symptoms will be gone within 24 hours.

In the case of a bee sting allergy or multiple bee stings, you should seek immediate medical attention.

Last medically reviewed on August 13, 2020

How we reviewed this article:

Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.

Carpenter bees. (2017).
ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-2074
How to treat a bee sting. (n.d.).
aad.org/public/everyday-care/injured-skin/bites/treat-bee-sting
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2020). Bee sting.
mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bee-stings/symptoms-causes/syc-20353869

Do Carpenter Bees Sting?

If you notice black or black and yellow bees burrowing into wood or wooded areas in your and near your home, you are probably looking at a carpenter bee. But what is a carpenter bee? And, more importantly, do carpenter bees sting?

What is a Carpenter Bee?

A carpenter bee is a subspecies of bees that are very large. Sometimes these bees are over an inch big! They have almost all black bodies or they have black and yellow bodies.

Since they are very large in size, it is common for carpenter bees to cause alarm when you notice them near your home. Some carpenter bees have a black spot on their backs, making identifying them simple and quick.

Do Carpenter Bees Eat Wood?

Since carpenter bees are usually found near small piles of sawdust near holes in wood, it is common to think that these bees feast on the wood they burrow into. However, carpenter bees do not ingest or eat wood.

Carpenter bees eat nectar from flowers. They collect this nectar by going flower to flower in the spring and summer seasons, much like most other bee species.

Are Carpenter Bees Pollinators?

Yes, carpenter bees are pollinators. Carpenter bees eat nectar from flowers and help carry pollen from one flower to the next while searching for food. They also make a special food called “bee bread” that they leave in their nests to feed their larvae when they hatch.

What is Bee Bread?

Bee bread is a regurgitated nectar for the larvae to eat once they hatch from eggs. It can also be called ambrosia.

How Long Do Carpenter Bees Live?

Carpenter bees have a long lifespan in the world of insects. These bees can live for up to 3 years!

Both the male and female of the mating pair will stay in the nest the female carpenter bee has made during their lifetime. They will often share the nest with their juvenile daughters as well, until it is time for these females to go out, find their own mates, and make their own nests.

Male carpenter bees rely on female carpenter bees for shelter, as male carpenter bees cannot make their own nests. Female carpenter bees use their strong mandibles and jaws to chew through dead, but not decaying, wood sources.

The tunnels they make over the years are impressive but extremely damaging to wood structures. If you notice carpenter bees nesting in or near your home, call a local beekeeper for instructions on what to do. They will often come out and safely remove and relocate the bees for you.

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Where Do Carpenter Bees Live?

Carpenter bees live in tiny burrows they make inside of wood. They hollow out perfectly round holes about the size of your finger to lay their eggs in. Do not try sticking your finger in these holes as the female carpenter bees can sting and will defend their nests.

Female carpenter bees will return to the same nesting spot year after year. They will spend most of their time inside the nest raising their young, while the male carpenter bees guard the opening.

Do Female or Male Carpenter Bees Sting?

Male carpenter bees cannot sting, as they do not have a stinger. Their large and unsettling size buzzing around and dive-bombing you, is usually enough for the male carpenter bee to ward off intruders.

But, if you’re able to see that a carpenter bee is male (and you’ll probably struggle to do so without it being static) then you can rest assured that it is unable to sting you.

Female carpenter bees, however, can sting you but will rarely do so.

They spend most of their time making their burrows and nests and the rest of the time with their young. If you were to poke your fingers into the carpenter bee’s nest entrance or if you tried to handle a carpenter bee, she would sting you.

Are Carpenter Bees Aggressive?

Carpenter bees are not aggressive unless provoked. Do not try to hold, touch, or poke them.

Carpenter bees are solitary bees, meaning they live alone with a mate in a nest they built themselves. Since they do not live in hives or large nests with multiple bees, stumbling upon a carpenter bee nest will not result in an angry swarm of bees trying to defend their home.

Male carpenter bees do not have a stinger and use their impressive size to ward off intruders and potential predators. Female carpenter bees spend almost all their time inside the burrows, so even though they can sting, it is rare that she is outside their nest to begin with.

Summary

Carpenter bees are the largest bees you will encounter in North America and Europe. Their massive size is enough to make humans wary and draw attention to themselves. However, carpenter bees are very docile creatures that keep mostly to themselves.

Female carpenter bees can sting, but spend most of their lives inside their nests, burrowing deeper and raising young. She will only sting if she is being handled, poked, or proded.

Male carpenter bees do not have stingers and defend their nests by dive bombing and flying at potential threats. Since these bees are huge, this technique works well for them.

Sara Sabharwal is a writer and poetess from central Illinois with the ambition to leave the world more beautiful than she found it. She is a houseplant addict and an avid gardener.

Carpenter Bees and How to Get Rid of Them

Animals & Nature

Insects
- Ants. Bees, & Wasps
- Basics
- Behavior & Communication
- Beetles
- Butterflies & Moths
- Spiders
- True Bugs, Aphids, Cicadas, and Hoppers
Amphibians
Birds
Habitat Profiles
Mammals
Reptiles
Marine Life
Forestry
Dinosaurs
Evolution

Carpenter Bee Basics

There are several species of carpenter bee in the United States, but the most common one is the Virginia carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica). These bugs are found throughout the Southeast but range as far as Connecticut to the north and Texas in the west. Carpenter bees range in size from about 5/8 of an inch to 1 inch and look very similar to bumblebees, but they’re not the same.

Bumblebees (genus Bombus) nest in the ground, usually in abandoned rodent nests, and live in social communities. Carpenter bees (genus Xylocopa) are solitary bees that burrow into wood. You can differentiate the two by examining the dorsal (upper) side of the abdomen. If it’s shiny and hairless, it’s a carpenter bee. A bumblebee, by contrast, has a hairy abdomen. Both are considered beneficial insects because they are excellent plant pollinators. Therefore, you should avoid eliminating these insects unless absolutely necessary.

Carpenter bees usually live for about one year. Each new generation is hatched in the late summer, emerging from nests in August and September to grow and feed, pollinating flowers as they go before settling in for the winter and hibernating. Survivors emerge in April and May to mate. The female carpenter bee excavates a tunnel for her offspring. In each brood chamber, she stores food and lays an egg. Having reproduced, adult carpenter bees die off in July, leaving the new generation to continue the cycle when they emerge a month or so later.

Most people encounter carpenter bees during April and May when they’ve just emerged to mate. During this time, male carpenter bees tend to hover around nest openings, looking for receptive females. It can be rather unnerving being around them, as the males will also hover aggressively around people who approach the nests. They may even fly right into you. Despite this tough act, male carpenter bees cannot sting. Female carpenter bees can sting, but almost never do.

How to Identify Nests

If you see a bee emerging from a hole in the ground or within a structure, that’s a good indication that you’re looking at a carpenter bee nest. To be certain, look at the entrance holes. A carpenter bee makes an entrance hole slightly bigger than her body, or just about ½ inch in diameter. The first inch or two of the tunnel is usually made against the wood grain. The bee will then make a right turn and extend the tunnel another 4 to 6 inches in the direction of the wood grain. Carpenter bees will often eliminate their waste before entering their nest, so you might see yellow stains on the surface of the wood, just below the entrance hole.

Though they burrow into wood, carpenter bees don’t eat wood like termites do. Since their nest tunnels are limited in size, they rarely do serious structural damage. However, because such excavation requires a lot of energy on her part, a female carpenter bee will often prefer to refurbish an old tunnel to digging a new one. If carpenter bees are allowed to tunnel in the same structure year after year, however, the cumulative damage can be significant.

How to Control Carpenter Bees

Your best defense is a good offense. Carpenter bees prefer to excavate untreated, unfinished wood. You can prevent carpenter bees from nesting in the first place by painting or varnishing your home’s exterior. If an infestation has occurred, you will need to use an insecticide to eliminate the carpenter bees. Many professionals recommend sprays or dust, which can reach the interior surface of the entrance holes. Apply the pesticide at dusk, when carpenter bees are less active.

For the insecticide to work, the bees much come in contact with it as they crawl through the entrance hole of the nest. Apply the appropriate insecticidal dust in the spring, just before adults emerge to mate. Once you see the bees emerge, wait a few days before filling in the nest holes with wood putty or filler. If you didn’t apply the insecticide before the spring adults emerged, you will need to treat the nests in the spring, and again in late summer, when the next generation of adults is foraging. In the fall, seal the nest holes with steel wool, then close off the hole with putty, wood filler, fiberglass, or asphalt.

A professional pest control service is your best choice, especially if you have a large infestation because they’ll have specialized tools that can reach deep into crevices. However, if you want to do it yourself, any name-brand insecticide formulated to kill flying insects should work. If you’d prefer to use a natural remedy, there are several, including boric acid, Diatomaceous earth, and citrus spray. You can also contact your local extension office to find out which insecticides are effective and legal for use on carpenter bees in your area.

_{Bamabara, Stephen and Waldvogel, Michael. “Residential, Structural, and Community Pests.” North Carolina State University. July 2009.}
_{Houseman, Richard. “Carpenter Bees.” The University of Missouri Extension.}
_{Jacobs Sr., Steve. “Carpenter Bees.” Pennsylvania State University. January 2014}
_{UC Davis staff. ” Carpenter Bees Management Guidelines.” The University of California. June 2014.}
_“13 Home Remedies to Get Rid of Carpenter Bees.” HomeRemedyHacks.com. 27 January 2015.