Carpenter bees get their name from their habit of drilling into wood to create tunnels where they lay eggs, unlike bumble bees which form colonies. Carpenter bees can live alone.
To recognize them, look for shiny, hairless abdomens. Traces of sawdust around an entrance hole could also give an indication. You could encourage them out by playing loud music vibrating at low frequency frequencies.
Contents
Pollen
Carpenter bees differ from their more well-known bumble bee counterparts by being solitary insects that attack unpainted wood structures such as doors, windowsills, fence posts, roof eaves and shingles, railings or wooden lawn furniture. Carpenter bees are considered pests because of their tendency to damage these wooden structures – damaging doors windowsills fence posts roof eaves shingles railings or lawn furniture in particular.
After finding an appropriate nest site, female carpenter bees chew out nearly circular holes in wood that are about the size of their bodies, then bore right-angled turns in its grain for excavating tunnels that stretch for one or two inches.
She fills each brood cell with pollen and nectar mixed together with saliva. Once in place, she deposits one egg per cell before closing off each chamber with regurgitated wood pulp.
Nectar
Female carpenter bees typically chew circular holes into wood surfaces to lay eggs and protect their developing young. They prefer unpainted soft wood surfaces like decks and eaves for this activity, though they will also burrow through fence posts and wooden lawn furniture. New tunnels (called cells) typically extend from 6-8 inches while reused galleries may cover many more feet.
Mother bees feed each cell a food ball of pollen and regurgitated nectar, known as bee bread, before placing a single egg at its center and sealing off its space with chewed wood pulp walls.
Adult carpenter bees overwinter in these wood tunnels and mate during spring mating flights. Males die shortly after mating while the females return to their overwintering tunnels until spring arrives once more.
Fruits
Wood bees feed off of fruit when it ripens, using its juice as fuel for their nest-building efforts. After they feed on this delicious treat, they return to their tunnels overwinter before emerging later to pollinate flowers.
These solitary bees seek nest sites among unpainted, weathered soft wood such as cedar, cypress and pine for nesting purposes. Boring holes approximately half an inch in diameter into roof shingles, siding panels, door frames or wooden lawn furniture leave behind piles of rough sawdust-like material behind entrance holes.
Once a hole has been dug, female carpenter bees divide off brood cells using chewed wood pulp in linear rows before laying their eggs inside them. After they hatch, she provides their larvae with pollen and nectar balls called bee bread until they can fly away on their own.
Vegetables
If you notice large, black bees lingering around wooden structures like homes and decks or drilling holes in them, chances are they’re carpenter bees (Xylocopa virginica). This species of bee is best known for boring into wood to create nesting galleries – unlike their more familiar cousins the bumble bees they don’t live in colonies like their counterparts do.
Though many homeowners may find their presence irritating, pollinators play an integral part of our ecosystem. To stop carpenter bees from damaging your property, you can paint wooden surfaces they target with outdoor preservative or stain. Or use commercial products designed to repel them using aerosol spray cans; make sure to read and follow label instructions before using one – however keep in mind they will still tunnel into untreated wood!
Water
Carpenter bees obtain their water from flowers and plants, nectar sources, as well as direct drinking sources like lakes. These sources provide nutrition as well as energy needed for work.
During springtime, female carpenter bees search for suitable nest sites to lay their eggs. Either expanding an existing tunnel or boreing new one are viable options; both typically feature perfectly circular entrance holes around half an inch in diameter with right angle turns following wood grain for nest formation forming cells for egg laying; once complete these galleries become known as colonies.
Bees are attracted to unpainted cedar, cypress and redwood siding, door frames, window sills, roof eaves and telephone poles that have not been protected with paint. While bees may not cause as much destruction as termites do with their wood-boring activities, their wood-boring activities can still cause cosmetic and structural damage.
