A nest under an eave is, in most Virginia houses, a seasonal nuisance that dies out with the first hard frost. It matters where people walk, and it matters a great deal to anyone in the household who is allergic, but it is not a building problem.
With one exception. The insect Virginians most often describe as "a big wasp drilling into my deck" is not a wasp at all. It is a carpenter bee, and carpenter bees are a wood-destroying insect that appears on the report used in real estate transactions — which makes them the one flying insect on your house with a contractual consequence.
This is general information. Nest removal near an allergy risk is not a do-it-yourself job, and identification from a description is never certain.
What is actually on the house
| What you see | What it is | Does it go on the NPMA-33? |
|---|---|---|
| Round, smooth hole about 3/8 inch, coarse sawdust below, big black-and-yellow bee hovering | carpenter bee | Yes |
| Open, umbrella-shaped comb on a stalk under an eave or rail | paper wasp | No |
| Grey paper ball, enclosed, in a tree or under a soffit | bald-faced hornet | No |
| Nest in the ground, heavy traffic at a hole in the lawn | yellowjacket | No |
| Mud tube stuck to a wall, single, finger-shaped | mud dauber | No |
The first row is the one worth thirty seconds. A round, smooth, apparently drilled hole in exposed wood — a deck rail, fascia, soffit, trim — with coarse sawdust below and often a yellowish stain, is a carpenter bee. Nothing else on a Virginia house makes a hole that looks manufactured. What left the sawdust →
Why carpenter bees cost money and hornets do not
The NPMA-33 wood-destroying insect report covers four groups: termites, carpenter ants, carpenter bees, and reinfesting wood-boring beetles.
So carpenter bee damage in your eaves goes on the report. And under the standard Northern Virginia contract the seller furnishes that report dated no more than 90 days before settlement and pays for treatment and for the repair of the damage the report identifies.
People discount carpenter bees as cosmetic. The contract does not. The damage also accumulates in a specific way: the same wood is reused and extended year after year, so a decade of tolerated nesting in a fascia is a repair rather than a patch.
Paper wasps, hornets, yellowjackets and mud daubers do none of this. They build on wood; they do not consume or excavate it.
The nests, and what each one implies
Paper wasp. An open comb, cells visible from below, on a short stalk under an eave, a rail, a light fitting or a grill lid. Colonies are small and the insects are not especially aggressive away from the nest. Location decides whether it matters: above a doorway is different from the far corner of a shed.
Bald-faced hornet. The enclosed grey paper ball, sometimes the size of a football by late summer. Defensive at range, and genuinely worth leaving to someone with the right equipment.
Yellowjacket. Often in the ground, sometimes in a wall void with an exterior entrance. Aggressive in late summer when the colony is largest and its food is scarce. A wall-void colony is the one case here that can also mean a structural mess, because a nest abandoned in a cavity attracts other things afterwards.
Mud dauber. Solitary, docile, and largely harmless. The mud tubes on a wall are not termite mud tubes: a mud dauber tube is a finger-length lump stuck to the surface rather than a road running from soil to wood.
Annual, except one. In Virginia, paper wasp, hornet and yellowjacket colonies die with frost and the nest is not reused. Removing an old nest in winter is tidying, not pest control. Carpenter bees are the exception — they overwinter in the galleries and return to the same wood.
What to do, and what not to
Photograph from a distance, with something for scale, and note where it is relative to a door or a path.
Watch the traffic for a minute. Heavy two-way traffic at a hole in the ground or a gap in siding means a colony inside, which is not a nest you deal with yourself.
Check the exposed wood while you are outside — deck rails, fascia, the underside of the soffit — for round 3/8-inch holes and sawdust.
Do not spray a nest from a ladder. Being stung on a ladder is the actual risk in this whole subject, and it is why this job is worth paying for.
Do not seal a wall-void entrance. The colony inside will find another way out, frequently into the room.
Do not fill carpenter bee holes yet. Sealing an active gallery traps the occupants and removes the evidence an inspector reads. Treatment first, then filling and painting.
If anyone in the household has a known sting allergy, do not approach it at all.
What this means for you specifically
If you own and live in the home
For wasps and hornets this is about placement and risk. For carpenter bees it is maintenance that compounds.
Your action: deal with the nest if it is where people pass, and separately check the exposed wood. Painted or finished wood is markedly less attractive to carpenter bees than bare wood.
If you are selling under contract
Carpenter bee holes in the eaves are a wood-destroying insect finding and will appear on the report.
Your action: treat and repair before the inspection rather than after it. Exterior trim repair is straightforward when it is not against a settlement date. The contract clause →
If you are buying
Carpenter bee damage is easy to see and easy to overlook, and it is on the exterior where an inspector can reach it.
Your action: ask whether exterior wood was inspected and what was found, then look at the eaves and the deck yourself. Reading the report →
If you rent
A nest on the structure is the landlord's through the habitability duty under § 55.1-1220, and a nest above a doorway is not a housekeeping matter.
Your action: report in writing today with a photograph and the location. Say if anyone in the household has a sting allergy — that changes the urgency of a reasonable response. Step by step →
If you are a landlord
A nest by an entrance is a foreseeable risk, and a documented request that went unanswered is a poor record.
Your action: respond in writing, use a licensed operator rather than a ladder, and give the 48-hour written notice under § 55.1-1223 before any application unless the tenant requested it. What you owe →
Before you call: what costs what
An inspection and a treatment are two separate services with separate prices, and with carpenter bees there is a third that people forget.
| Typical Virginia range | What it produces | |
|---|---|---|
| General pest inspection | often free where the company expects to quote treatment | a verbal or written assessment |
| Wood-destroying insect inspection and report | $65–$200 | the NPMA-33 form |
| Nest removal | quoted per nest; height and access drive it | the nest gone |
| Carpenter bee treatment, then filling and painting | treatment quoted; the carpentry often separate | the reason they do not return to the same wood |
What is usually free: a quote for removal, once someone has seen the location.
What is usually not: the inspection report used in a real estate transaction.
Ask which applies before you book, and for carpenter bees ask whether filling and finishing the holes is included or is a separate job.
Common misunderstandings
"A bee drilling my deck is a wasp." It is a carpenter bee, and it is the only insect in this list that goes on the wood-destroying insect report.
"Carpenter bees are harmless." The males hover and cannot sting; the females can but rarely do. The damage is the point, not the sting, and it accumulates because the same wood is reused.
"Knock the nest down at night." Better than by day, and still the wrong idea from a ladder, and useless against a colony inside a wall.
"Mud on the wall means termites." A mud dauber tube is a lump stuck to a surface. A termite tube runs from soil to wood. Mud tubes on the foundation →
"Fill the holes and they'll go." Filling an active gallery traps them and destroys the evidence. Treat, then fill, then finish the wood.
"Nests get reused next year." Wasps and hornets do not reuse them here. Carpenter bees return to the same wood, which is the whole difference.
What to ask a pest control company
- Which insect is this, and is it a wood-destroying insect for reporting purposes?
- Is the colony inside a wall void, and if so, what happens to the nest afterwards?
- Does the price include filling and painting the carpenter bee galleries, or only the treatment?
- How many nests did you find, and where else did you look on the exterior?
- Is anyone in the household at risk if this is disturbed while I am here?
- Under what name is your Virginia pesticide business licence held?
What to have ready before you call
Where the nest is and how high, how close to a door or a path, what it looks like with a photograph, whether traffic goes in and out of a hole rather than to an open comb, whether anyone has a sting allergy, whether you have found round holes and sawdust on exposed wood, and your settlement date if you are under contract.
Frequently asked questions
Will they go away on their own? Wasps, hornets and yellowjackets die out with frost, and the nest is not reused. Carpenter bees overwinter and come back to the same wood.
Is a nest in the ground a wasp nest? Usually yellowjackets. Ground colonies are the ones behind most late-summer stings in Virginia gardens.
Can I treat carpenter bees myself? The holes are reachable and the temptation is real. The mistake is filling them before treatment, which traps the occupants and leaves the damage unrecorded.
Do carpenter bees ever get into the house? They nest in exterior wood. What gets into the house is more often a wasp through a gap in a soffit or a window.
Does an old nest need removing? Cosmetic for wasps and hornets. In a wall void, an abandoned nest is worth removing because of what it attracts afterwards.
Verify before you pay anyone
VDACS publishes an updated list of licensed pesticide businesses weekly, with a public lookup confirming an active Pesticide Business License. General pest control is category 7a and wood-destroying pest control 7b under 2VAC5-685-70.
For carpenter bees, ask which category the company holds. If the finding is going on a report used in a sale, 7b is the one that matters, and general pest control alone is not it. How to check →