Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Hello, everyone, it’s Mike Stewart on the host of the Faith Pest Control podcast here with pest expert, Fred Tally. And today we’re building new some new information for if you’re living in the Jasper area, Blairsville, Blue Ridge, Big Canoe, you know, anywhere in the North Georgia mountains and mountains, especially in Jasper, Georgia. We do this as a community service to educate folks about pests and what to do about them. And Fred has got a really interesting problem today. It’s a different type of bee that I’ve never heard of. So Fred, why don’t you tell us about this scary new bee?
Well, my kids called this sculpted resin bee. So I’ve been in the industry for 21 years now. Actually, it’s a second career for me, but I’ve been doing it for 21 years, and I’ve never seen this particular bee. So faith pest control has recently and when I say recently, I mean in the past couple of weeks, we’ve received four phone calls from customers, current customers, or potential customers complaining of swarming wasps at their homes. Well, wasps don’t swarm. So But ironically enough, each of these collars said that these wasps were swarming around the handrails on their decks, or porches and drilling holes into them. And they were concerned that the wasps were going to obviously destroy their handrails and stuff. I don’t always get to, at least initially talk directly to the customer. Normally, I’m, that’s, I’m the second person that talks to them. My daughter that works with me, he’s generally the first one. But when she related would relay these messages, she described it to me in a way that the colors were telling her that there were swarms and not swarms in the technical sense, like like termite swarm or honeybee swarm. But the customer the caller, was describing this really meaning just large numbers of these wasps.
And initially, when we started getting the calls, my first thought was that, you know, they’re just they’re making a mistake. It’s their carpenter base drilling holes or handrail, just like they do every year. And so, but I found it unusual that all four collars had identified these bees as wasps. So I called them and you know, I went to their homes to investigate. When I got there, when I first saw the bees themselves, I didn’t know what they were really. But what I did know was that they were not wasps. I could, I could freely stand among the swarm, if you will. And these swarms, these masses, were like maybe 15 or 20. Bees, not not 1000s Like in termites or honeybees. But I never felt threatened. I was standing I can stand right in the middle of them, they weren’t aggressive towards me at all. I did see that the bees were going in and out of holes in the wood. And there would be frass on the floor, like like wood chips or wood shavings, if you will, on the floor of the porch or deck. And the holes that I that I thought they were drilling looks awfully similar to a carpenter bee hole. They still didn’t dawn on me what was going on. So I was under the impression that these strange bees were drilling the holes as well. After doing some investigation on the internet, I figured out what was going on. So a lot of people know that the female carpenter bee bores a hole in wood and she lays her eggs in the board hole. She prepares the food source for them with a pollen and other stuff. So that when they hatch into a larva, you know she places the food source between each egg I believe she lays six eggs in there. So what was happening is these strange bees these they’re also called a giant resin bee. So the resin bees were cleaning out the pre existing carpenter Behold, that’s why the frass was on the floor and we can see it this low Like I said a minute ago these these wasps turned out to be the giant resin Bayer sculpted resin B. This is actually an invasive bee and I know some people are going to cheer and shout but it says that they can threaten the native carpenter bee population in you know, if you live in a wooden house in North Georgia, you love the carpenter bee because they they don’t necessarily destroy your house but they they encourage the predator that will destroy your house which is the woodpecker because they come to try to to harvest that larva this the giant resin they are sculpted and resin B is actually native to Asia, Japan and China more specifically, is it was just first found in North Carolina in the mid 90s. They like I was saying a minute ago they’re not aggressive to people but they do have the potential to create problems for the native carpenter bees because they take over their nest which will prevent them from procreating. And they actually will deposit this resin type substance on on the on the female carpenter base which will kill her in carpenter bees, a lot of people don’t know but they’re there are serious pollinators they they contribute a great deal to the pollination of our food crops. The sculpted resin base the reason that they they take over these carpenter bee hoses, they don’t have the mandible string, they can’t bore the hole themselves. They they will you know they’re opportunistic and that they’ll take advantage of the fact that the carpenter bee drilled the hole, but they can also live in cavities created in in in wood construction where two pieces don’t necessarily meet. Exactly. In flush. Dan Souter, which is he’s a professor here in the department of Entomology at UGA even said, and I got this out of an article on the internet that he does not see resin bees frequently. But he indicated that they are known to be a good pollinator of some plant species. So we don’t see the bay very often. But he is does occasionally get samples of bees of those bees to identify. And interestingly enough, he said we know that it’s invasive, and uses kudzu as a food source. Now, kudzu was brought in from Southeast Asia, I believe, if I’m not mistaken. And I actually after we had received these calls at our office, and after I went out to investigate and kind of determined what was going on. I had a small swarm at my house that they were trying to get into a carpenter bee hole that was in one of my handrails, and I thought it was quite interesting and I don’t have kudzu on, specifically on my property. But some property that’s right next door to me, does have kudzu. Some more of my research indicated that the adult sculpted resin baby be found typically June through September. They’re solitary bees as opposed to honey bees honey bees are social. But these are solitary bees. They make their nest and available holes in wooden structures or in cracks and crevices between the wood boards just like I talked about a few minutes ago, but they do not bore holes into the wood. They take advantage of the holes and cavities that are already there. Those that are created by the carpenters and the carpenter bees. Their individual sales are constructed using wood particles in mud actually, they will provide each sale with a pollen which would be a food source for the larva and then they lay an egg in each sale you know just to single egg.
The females also use their jaws to collect the resin needs to cap the cap the cells which are called brood, the then the our larva will overwinter inside the sail consuming the pollen in the spring. We pay in emergencies adult in early summer. Ironically enough, like I said earlier these some of these carbon or be holes at my house have these resin bees trying to nest in them. Here at fates pest control, we we always offer a console free consultation, as well as 100% make you happy money back guarantee. If you hire a Faith Pest Control to get rid of your bug problem. And at the end of 30 days, you’re not 100% Happy, we will come back and retreat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it for free, until you tell us that you are happy. If that still doesn’t make you happy, we’ll give you back every penny of the money you spent on your original treatment plus an additional $25 Just for fooling with us. Bottom line is you’ll be happy with the service we provide or you won’t pay a penny period. If you feel like what I’ve said makes sense.
Please call us today is 770-823-9202 and ask to speak to me Fred tally. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions you may have. Well Fred, who knew there was another flavor of a bee that’s invasive but the sculptor resin bee is in Georgia and people in Jasper are finding the it to be a sculptured resin bee. And, folks if you have any issues or concerns and want to take care of this problem and know what to do call Fred at Faith pest control. We do this podcast as a public service for all the fine folks in North Georgia. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Amazon, audible. You can get it in Google at Spotify anywhere podcasts are you can subscribe to this podcast. You know we say like us, share us and subscribe to us. And we’ll see you next time on another informative issue about how to have a pest free home in North Georgia with the faith pest control podcast
