Five Fun Facts About Carpenter Bees

That's No Bumble Bee
That’s No Bumble Bee

Often mistaken for large bumblebees, despite their similar size and docile nature, carpenter bees are very unique:

1. The women pack more punch.

Distinguished from the solid black head of females, males lack stingers and can be identified by white or yellow patches. Both can be aggressive when defending nests and unnerve passersby unable to differentiate the two.

2. They don’t eat wood.

Carpenter bees don’t consume wood at any point in their life cycle. They simply excavate tunnels for shelter in order to raise young. Carpenter bees enjoy the nectar of flowers, but break open the flower to do so, robbing the juice without pollinating.

3. They are creatures of habit.

Carpenter bees return to the same location they were born, year after year, re-using existing holes and drilling new nests as their population swells. They don’t live in hives like honey bees, but build individual nests to lay eggs.

4. They can cause serious damage to the structure of your house.

Though holes may only appear an inch or two deep, they can vary in size from six inches to as long as 4 feet, holding eggs and serving as passageways for food delivery. Given enough time, they can chew quite a gallery of tunnels through your home.

5. They can make sound waves with their bodies.

Using the springy flight muscles of their thorax, carpenter bees produce sound waves, pinging in and out and shaking pollen from their bodies in a practice known as buzz pollination.

Want those carpenter bees to buzz off? Count on Allison Pest Control, serving Monmouth and Ocean County residents since 1917.