Carpenter Bee
Common Name
Scientific Name
Carpenter Bee
Xylocopa virginica
Identification:
Carpenter Bees are large and robust, measuring about ¾ to 1 inch in length. They are black with a metallic sheen. The female carpenter bee has an all black head where as the males have white markings on theirs. The thorax of the Carpenter Bee is covered with bright yellow, orange, or white hairs, and the upper side of the abdomen is black, glossy, and bare.
Biology:
The life cycle of this type of bee, which include, egg, larvae, pupa, and adult, lasts about seven weeks, although the developmental time may depend on temperature. In the spring (late April early May) the male and female will mate outside of the nest and together they will find a nesting site, the male will soon die after the female has found the nesting site. The female who is the main “carpenter” if you will, prefers a site that is an old nest which she will refurbish, rather than a new nest. If she does have to excavate a new nest she uses her strong jaws to create a clean cut round hole as the entrance to the nest. This hole is slightly less than 1/2-inch wide, approximately the diameter of her body. She bores into the wood perpendicular to the grain for one to two inches then makes a 90 degree angle turn and excavates along the wood grain for four to six inches to create a gallery (tunnel).
She excavates the gallery at the rate of about one inch in six days. In the tunnel she creates a series of small cells where she will lay her eggs at the same time she also creates food for the larvae, which consists of regurgitated nectar and pollen. She then lays her eggs in the cells on top of the food mass, and plugs or closes the cells off with a mixture of chewed wood pulp. She can lay up to 10 of these cells in a row, and soon after she will die.
Once the eggs have hatched, the larva have grown to full adults, they will stay in the gallery for several weeks and later chew
through the plugs their mother had created and venture out in late August. They will then collect and store pollen in the existing galleries, but they will also spend much of their time huddled together inside their nest. These new adults will then hibernate until they emerge the following spring, and the process begins all over again.
Habits:
The Carpenter Bees prefer to create nests in softwood, but they also been known to create nests in hardwood as well. This type of bee can more easily tunnel through woods that are soft and that have a straight grain. Carpenter bees attack structural timbers and other wood products, including fence posts, utility poles, firewood, arbors, and lawn furniture. In buildings, carpenter bees nest in bare wood near roof eaves and gables, fascia boards, porch ceilings, decks, railings, siding, shingles, shutters, and other weathered wood. These bees avoid wood that is well painted or covered with bark.
