Fortunately, they rarely if ever sting people and their nests can be removed. There are several species of carpenter bee in the United States, but the most common one is the Virginia carpenter bee Xylocopa virginica. These bugs are found throughout the Southeast but range as far as Connecticut to the north and Texas in the west. Bumblebees genus Bombus nest in the ground, usually in abandoned rodent nests, and live in social communities.
Carpenter bees genus Xylocopa are solitary bees that burrow into wood. You can differentiate the two by examining the dorsal upper side of the abdomen.
If it's shiny and hairless, it's a carpenter bee. A bumblebee, by contrast, has a hairy abdomen. Both are considered beneficial insects because they are excellent plant pollinators. Therefore, you should avoid eliminating these insects unless absolutely necessary. Carpenter bees usually live for about one year.
Each new generation is hatched in the late summer, emerging from nests in August and September to grow and feed, pollinating flowers as they go before settling in for the winter and hibernating. Survivors emerge in April and May to mate. The female carpenter bee excavates a tunnel for her offspring.
In each brood chamber, she stores food and lays an egg. Having reproduced, adult carpenter bees die off in July, leaving the new generation to continue the cycle when they emerge a month or so later. Most people encounter carpenter bees during April and May when they've just emerged to mate.
During this time, male carpenter bees tend to hover around nest openings, looking for receptive females. It can be rather unnerving being around them, as the males will also hover aggressively around people who approach the nests. During this time they gather food and search for the male or female they will nest with. Carpenter bees are solitary bees, so while several young may emerge from the same nest this does not mean they will continue to live together.
Typically a carpenter bee male and carpenter bee female will create their own nest together. At the most, one nest will house a few carpenter bee siblings. Once the wood bees have found their mate and round up their needed nourishment, it is time for nest construction. The female is the lead engineer in this endeavor. The male carpenter bee is very territorial and protects its nesting sites, hovering nearby and attacking intruders.
Although the male behaves aggressively, it does not have a stinger, making it harmless. The female has a stinger but is not defensive and rarely stings. Males have a white or yellow blaze on their face, while females have a dark face.
Homeowners often mistake carpenter bees with bumble bees because of their similarities in size and appearance. Actually, there are many species of bumble bees and carpenter bees, each with unique color patterns, but most carpenter and bumble bees are yellow and black. The quickest way to tell a carpenter bee from a bumble bee is by looking at its abdomen. It is important to distinguish between carpenter bees and bumble bees because they behave very differently.
Carpenter bees are solitary bees that nest in excavated wooden tunnels. Bumble bees are social bees that develop colonies of dozens of sister bees that nest in the ground. Because carpenter bees are solitary bees, they are less defensive of their nest sites; whereas, bumble bees are extremely defensive when their nest site is disturbed. Adult female and male carpenter bees overwinter in abandoned nest tunnels where they have stored small amounts of pollen.
The adults emerge in early spring to mate and search for nest sites. Females may use old abandoned nest tunnels or excavate new galleries to lay her eggs.
Each gallery or tunnel will hold six to eight cells. The egg hatches and the larva grub stage develops into the adult, which chews through the cell partition and emerges in late summer. Carpenter bees are good pollinators and should not be harmed. Unfortunately, they also can be pests around homes, causing considerable structural damage when they repeatedly colonize exposed wood. An early sign of carpenter bee damage is coarse sawdust that collects beneath excavated cavities during the spring of the year.
Unsightly stains caused by falling bee waste around the entrance hole may also develop. I will apply the NBS repellant also thanks to you for having that into your article when I restain everything this year gotta get rid of the suckers before I restain.
Anyway, my oldest has fun playing tennis with the bees and thanks to all your info, we have learned more than I ever wanted to know. I went about this all wrong according to your site. I sprayed bug killer store bought generic into the holes. Two large bees fell out. I caulked all 8 holes. Will they die in there? Did I make a major error by sealing them in? How many could possibly be in there? It is a standard 4 x 4 wooden post. Thank you so much. Well, what we see typically happens in such cases is that the developing larvae will simply drill new holes for nesting and eventually, exiting the wood.
And this will probably happen later this year and then again next spring so keep an eye out for it by inspecting the wood every couple of weeks.
Dusting is definitely the way to go since it will last years thus insuring it gets anything that hatches in the future. But this will depend on the type of caulking used, how deep you injected it, etc. Drione: www. Hand Duster: www. Carpenter Bee Article: www. Give us a call if you need more help. Jonathan Customer Care bugspray.
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Thanks for your business! We had carpenter bees coming into our old stone foundation which had weak spots with some occasionally finding their way into our basement. How should we handle this? Will they just die off without access to the outside? Corks: www. You can read up on bumble bees here:. Bumblebee Control: www. So if you locate a nest outside and close to the homes foundation in the ground, get it dusted with this dust for quick control. Bumble bees will readily nest under pine straw, wood chips, decorative rocks, etc.
Delta Dust: www.
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