How should our HOA handle carpenter bees boring into wood trim and fascia?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 28, 2026

A board plan for carpenter bees in HOA fascia, eaves and trim: when to treat, how to plug and paint the holes, who pays, and how to hire a licensed pest contractor.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Carpenter bees bore round holes in bare, weathered softwood, come back to the same boards every spring, and draw woodpeckers that tear the wood open to reach the larvae. The lasting fix is paint: University of Kentucky Extension says carpenter bees usually will not tunnel into painted wood. In the short term, have a licensed pest control company treat the active holes in spring, wait a few days, then plug, caulk and paint. Decide early who pays on owner-maintained trim. Your declaration controls that, state law varies, and this guide is general education, not legal advice.

Make sure they are carpenter bees

Owners will call them bumblebees. Check before anyone sprays. UGA Extension Circular 1342 says carpenter bees have a shiny, hairless black abdomen, while bumblebees have a hairy abdomen striped yellow and black and nest in the ground, often in old rodent burrows, not in wood. The signs on a building: - A perfectly round hole, about 1 centimeter (roughly 3/8 inch) across, on the underside of fascia, eaves, rafter tails, railings or trim - Coarse sawdust on the ground or ledge below - Stains around the hole, which Purdue Extension says come from the bees defecating near their tunnels - Large black bees hovering at eye level near the eaves in spring Purdue's fact sheet E-252 says the tunnel goes in a short way across the grain, then turns and runs along the grain for 6 to 8 inches. Kentucky's Entfact-611 says the bees favor unpainted, weathered softwoods such as redwood, cedar, cypress and pine, and that painted or pressure-treated wood is much less likely to be attacked.

Why the board should act

One season of holes is mostly cosmetic. The trouble is repetition. Kentucky Extension says significant damage happens when the same pieces of wood are infested year after year, and that the holes let moisture in, which leads to rot. Purdue notes the larvae attract woodpeckers that compound the damage, and our guide on stopping woodpecker damage on HOA siding and trim picks up there. Sting risk is low, which helps when owners panic. Purdue and Kentucky both say the males, the ones that hover in people's faces, cannot sting, and that females seldom sting unless handled. Tell owners that in the first notice. It heads off a lot of calls. They are also pollinators that do not eat wood. That is a reason to aim treatment at the tunnels and the boards they use, not to spray the whole property.

Who pays and who does the work

Start with the maintenance chart in your declaration. Fascia, soffits and trim are often common elements on condos and attached townhomes and owner items on detached homes, but documents differ, so read yours. Texas: Property Code 82.107(a) makes a condominium association responsible for the common elements. Florida: Statutes 718.113(1) puts common element maintenance on a condominium association, apart from limited common elements the declaration assigns to owners. Colorado: C.R.S. 38-33.3-307(1) makes the association responsible for common elements and each owner responsible for the unit, except as the declaration provides. Where the trim belongs to owners, the board can still help. Send one notice that explains the problem and the fix, and offer owners the association's contractor at the same per-hole or per-building price. Bees from an untreated house move to the next one, so a coordinated spring treatment works better than ten owners acting at ten different times.

Treat, wait, plug, paint

Hire the work out. In Texas, Occupations Code 1951.301 requires a structural pest control business license to do pest control for pay, and Florida Statutes 482.071(1) makes it unlawful to run a pest control business without a license from the state agriculture department. A licensed company also knows the product labels. The steps the extension sources agree on: 1. Treat in spring, when females are boring. Kentucky says the best time is before tunnels are finished. The contractor puts an insecticide dust or liquid labeled for carpenter bees directly into each hole. 2. Leave the holes open. Kentucky says a few days, and UGA says 1 or 2 days, so returning bees carry the insecticide through the tunnel. 3. Plug each hole with a wooden dowel coated in carpenter's glue, putty or another sealant. Kentucky says this keeps new bees out of old tunnels and keeps moisture out. 4. Paint. Kentucky says stains and preservatives are less reliable than paint. Replace any board that is soft or badly tunneled, especially if it carries load. UGA notes that surface sprays lose effectiveness within a few weeks, and Kentucky puts it at about 3 to 4 weeks, so a one-time spray of every fascia board in March will not carry the season. Wooden box traps hung at building corners in early spring can thin the numbers on a problem building, but they do not replace plugging and paint.

A sample timeline and motion

January or February: walk the buildings and photograph holes, stains and woodpecker damage. Get two bids priced per building, with treatment, plugging and touch-up paint as separate lines. March to April: treatment as soon as bees are active. UGA says adults emerge in February in Georgia, and Purdue says April and May in Indiana, so set the date by your own region. A few days after treatment: plug and seal every treated hole. Late spring: prime and paint, or move the worst buildings into the next exterior repainting cycle. Fall: check for new holes and woodpecker damage, and update the photo log. Sample motion: 'Move to approve [vendor] to treat, plug and seal carpenter bee holes on Buildings A through F at $[amount], completed by April 30, with touch-up painting of all treated trim by June 15, and to offer owners of detached homes the same price for owner-maintained trim.' Owner notice wording: 'The large black bees around the eaves are carpenter bees. Males cannot sting, and females rarely do. The association's contractor will treat and seal holes in common trim in [month]. Please leave the holes alone until then so the treatment works, and report any new holes to the board.'

Mistakes boards make

Plugging first. Every extension source here says treat, then leave the holes open for a day or more so returning bees pick up the insecticide. A hole sealed the same morning skips that step. Painting around the problem. Painting only the face of the fascia leaves bare undersides and end grain, which is where the bees start. Staining instead of painting. Stain looks nice on cedar, but Kentucky says it repels less well than paint. Ignoring woodpecker holes. Ragged, enlarged holes along a bee-infested board usually mean a woodpecker is digging out larvae. Treat the bees before you patch. Leaving it to the next board. The bees return each spring to the same wood, and the damage builds every year. Put the walk-through on the board calendar. Our guide on setting up an HOA termite and pest control contract shows how to add carpenter bees to an existing vendor's scope.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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