I wish that were true for me. We bought a basically new home in 2015. Built in 2011 and lived in for six months by renters who were building their own home. The house is stained. In 2016 we decided to have the house re-stained hoping that would slow these pesky creatures down. The fresh stain had absolutely no effect on them at all. This year we paid an exterminator to spray the outside for carpenter bees. A three spray regiment spread out over several months. I'm not sure of how well it has worked because our winter extended into what is normally the time of year where they become active here, late April through the first week or so of June. They didn't appear to be extremely active like they usually do. Getting our third and final spraying next week. Fingers are crossed that the spraying will deal with them going forward.