Wood Destroying Insects

Wood Destroying Insects

There are lots of bugs out there, but the ones we worry about are termites, carpenter bees, carpenter ants and powder post beetles. They can do a substantial amount of damage to a home.


Carpenter bees make nests by tunneling into the wood. Each nest has a single entrance which may have many adjacent tunnels. The entrance is often a perfectly circular hole on the fascias or soffits, the underside of a beam, bench, or tree limb. Carpenter bees do not eat wood. They discard the bits of wood, or re-use particles to build partitions between cells. The tunnel functions as a nursery for brood and storage for the pollen/nectar upon which the brood subsists.

Carpenter ants reside both outdoors and indoors in moist, decaying or hollow wood. They cut into the wood grain to provide passageways for movement from section to section of the nest. Certain parts of a house, such as around and under windows, roof eaves, decks and porches, are more likely to be infested by carpenter ants because these areas are most vulnerable to moisture.

Powder post beetles are a group of wood-boring beetles. While most woodborers have a large prothorax, powder post beetles do not make their heads more visible. In addition to this, their antennae have two-jointed clubs.