Aggressive bees on my deck every year

[Anonymous]

For the last few years, there have been 1-2 bees coming back to our deck hanging around starting in the spring & leaving by the end of summer, and they think that our deck belong to them. They attrack me when I walk on our deck at anytime. They are quite big and black. I have looked around,and I don’t see any presence of hives. I am suspicious that they don’t live in hives at all. They come after sunrise, and leave by sunset daily, except on rainy day or windy day or cold day. We have a lot of tiny brown dirt pile in our backyard, but I know those are caused by bees hatch or hibernate there over winter, and they are gone already. They are tiny, and they do not attack people, like these bees on my deck. We are in Montgomery county, Maryland.


We have plastic wood deck, and my townhouse neighbor has wood deck. There are no trees, no flowers, or bushes in the back yard, and there is no fence. How do get rid of those bees? Because of their presence, we could not use our deck for the last few years. They are really aggressive, and I think one day I may get sting by them.

[Anonymous]

They’re not aggressive. They’re carpenter bees. They are big and stupid and they buzz around your head but they do not attack. You have not been stung by these bees. If you just ignore them, you can go about your day.

[Anonymous]

The males are the ones that will buzz and fly at you, and they don’t even have stingers.

[Anonymous]

Call an exterminator.

[Anonymous]

They are completely black, and bigger than the size of a quarter. They are bigger than a bounce ball size. PP, are you saying that they are carpenter bees? They charge at me even when they see me standing in front of the patio double door. Are they the same bees coming back every year or different ones? We have 2 young kids under 5 year old, and I want to put water table, sand box, and some patio furniture on deck this year. How am I sure that they have no sting or bite at people since they are so aggressive and look scary? My kids are scared of them. Is there a reason they they love my deck so much to visit us every year for spring/summer seasons?

I know the ones on the ground are really tiny and probably called ground bees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call an exterminator.

How much is a reasonable & estimated quite? Any pest exterminator?

[Anonymous]

Yes, this sounds like black carpenter bees. The males cannot sting. They are trying to intimidate you away from a nest (the female can sting but rarely does). It could be the same bees as last year, since they live a couple years, but they don't "know" you.

Even with a Trex deck you likely have wood supports, wood house trim, wood fence, etc. Look for bee-sized round holes, or piles of sawdust.

In this area they are active in April - May and then mostly go away. Most people ignore then as they are largely harmless and great polinators so it's a shame to exterminate them if you can avoid it. However, I totally understand it's annoying. See if an exterminator can find the area they're defending and plug it up.

[Anonymous]

They can't sting, you don't have enough wood to really do any damage. They're annoying but they'll stop being so aggressive after the early part of the season. Just ignore.

[Anonymous]

Bumble Bees! I call them sky Sky Pandas. They are big and noisy and slow. They love to dive bomb at you. But they won’t sting you. They do have stingers, but they very, very rarely sting. I love them!

[Anonymous]

This is a good opportunity to teach your kids how to overcome a fear. The males may buzz and fly at them, but they can't sting. The female isn't usually out of the nest and won't sting unless they try to squish her with their hands or something.

Also, this doesn't apply to the carpenter bees because they don't sting, but bee stings are not a big deal unless you have an allergy. Kids need to learn that playing is worth the risk of a little pain. They should learn about bees, respect them, and then go on about their day.

Hiring an exterminator for a few carpenter bees is madness.

[Anonymous]

Also carpenter bees are great pollinators! Don’t kill them

[Anonymous]

They’re not going to hurt you. Ignore them.

[Anonymous]

I freaking hate our carpenter bees. The males can't sting you, but they are aggressive. They really don't want you in their air space. To mess with them, you can throw a pebble or piece of mulch in their air space and they will go after it.

The females do have stingers and can sting more than once. They are supposedly slower and dumb, but I don't get close enough to identify the face color to see who is hanging around.

I try to ignore them, but when they start guarding near the door where I take the dogs outside, then we have a problem.

[Anonymous]

OP I have the exact same problem. They will turn their fuzzy little bodies and watch me. They irritate my dogs to no end and just hang out on the deck k right by our doors all day long. I have no idea where they live either and there are two. Yesterday I actually whacked kne with a towel but it came back 5 mins later 🤦‍♀️

[Anonymous]

I am about to put a tennis racket outside. I'm trying to be cool b/c I don't like to kill pollinators, but the one that is guarding one set of stairs to our deck is a real a-hole.