After a harsh winter, spring is here. With warmer temperatures and sunshine come blossoming trees, blooming flowers, and pests of all kinds coming out of hibernation. One that you might see this spring is the carpenter bee. While there are many things you can learn about this bee, there are three things you may not have known about carpenter bees.
What They Do
Carpenter bees are named because they drill perfectly round holes in wood to make their nests. They use their very strong, broad jaws to chew into dead wood, often the limbs or trunks of dead trees. Once they have made a large enough hole, called a gallery, they form pollen/nectar loaves where the female will lay her eggs. She separates each egg with a mix of sawdust and her saliva.
The Difference Between Carpenter Bees and Bumblebees
Carpenter bees can look like bumblebees, but there some notable differences. While bumblebees are social insects, carpenter bees are not, and they have no queen as the ‘leader’. Carpenter bees have a shiny, smooth, black abdomen, as opposed to the yellow, hairy one of the bumblebee. Carpenter bees also have a life expectancy of up to three years. With one or two generations produced each year, that results in a lot of bees. This can make pest control difficult, but not impossible.
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