Why do people insist on killing beneficial insects? Every where I go I see people selling traps to kill carpenter bees. There is much written on how destructive carpenter bees are but not much about their benefits. I try to tell folks these bees are pollinators to no avail. Folks insist they can do enough damage to make a house fall down and they keep selling traps to kill them.
Pollinator decline is a serious environmental issues. We all know about honey bee decline but carpenter bees are also pollinators although many folks don't believe they are. They don't eat wood but discard the wood to make their nests. Carpenter bees return to the same nest each year and are loyal to their birth place so killing them only encourages the next generation to bore a new hole in the same wood.
Not only are carpenter bees pollinators they aren't aggressive and rarely sting. Here are some examples of bee nests you can provide for carpenter bees. A small block of
weathered, unpainted and unfinished wood is all that is needed to provide a good nesting site for these bees. Although there is research onThanks for reading and for all your comments.
All pollinators should be protected. We need them. Badly.
ReplyDeleteHi Sue, thanks, amen to that, folks just don't understand nature and the scheme of things
Delete