Our garage is out near the woodline with tons of autumn olive and other flowering things.  Prior owner appeared to do zero maintenance, so I am ripping down fascia (untreated, barely painted 2x6).  The carpenter/wood bees apparently made a home of it in previous years and have come back en masse.  I was on a ladder and counted somewhere around 30 of them swarming around me while I was tearing into their larvae laying area (fascia).

From what I've read, they don't like citrus, so I could try to spray that around.  I've filled some holes on the yet-to-be-replaced fascia to see if I can make them go away.  They can dig right through caulk and waiting to see about spray foam.  I am going to replace all the fascia, which will remove existing holes, but I'd like to make them go away.  The flying insect spray does not seem to kill them like it does wasps, it just makes them fly away and then they return.  If I spray it up in the holes, they eventually seem to die (some have fallen out and are black in color and dead).

Anyone have any ideas of things that work to repel them and keep them away?  I also read noise/vibration, but I don't have a great way to do that.  I am replacing with treated boards and then painting them to match the rest of the garage.  I have not seen them dig into that yet, but they are constantly probing around, so I am guessing only a matter of time.

Thanks!

LOL I was going to say any permethrin-based product should work fine.

If you need exercise you could also invest in an electric fly swatter, as they're pretty easy to hit and make a satisfying "thwock" when they hit something.

do you just spray the bee-gone stuff on your wood surfaces?  is there any paint discoloration?