Wood bee how to#

If left unchecked, this tunneling behavior can do substantial damage to a house since, because of the enormous amount of energy required to create these tunnels, bees will preferentially reuse and expand existing tunnels instead of starting new ones. Large social colonies, 30,000 or more live in man-made hives and natural cavities like tree hollows. They don’t eat the wood, instead they chew into dead wood (trees, wooden trim, structural timbers, fence posts, etc.) to construct branched galleries for their eggs. But stay calm and leave her alone, and shell do the same. Unlike other social bee species, carpenter bees are solitary creatures that nest in excavated wood galleries instead of. They represent some of the roughly 800 species of bees found in Canada. The most common signs of a carpenter bee infestation are the round, smooth holes that carpenter bees bore into wood, hence the nickname wood bees. If youre swatting at her with a newspaper or waving your hands frantically to scare her off, then yes, you might get stung. Description Carpenter bees are a group of bees which, as the name suggests, tunnel and nest in wood. A female will defend herself if she feels threatened, but shes not threatened that easily. I had never met carpenter bees before so that day was the start of two beautiful friendships.Ĭarpenter bees have something of a bad reputation. Their common name - carpenter bee - comes from their habit of excavating round tunnels inside wood. Female carpenter bees do have a sting and are capable of stinging you. Carpenter bees and bumble bees are the largest bees in North America.

He was something of a hermit, but he knew of my interest in backyard nature and was excited to show me these beautiful, huge bees. Posted about my SAB listing a few weeks ago about not showing up in search only when you entered the exact name. Many years ago a neighbor approached me with a question about the carpenter bees busily working their way into the trim along his porch. We had never met.

Wood bee how to#

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