It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Its a Carpenter Bee !

With spring has come, to my great chagrin, another new (at least to me!) flying bug. Arghhhhh! Last year I was introduced to the Fig Beetle, a large, iridescent flying bug that would send me racing for the house the moment I heard the loud buzzzzing come from the southwest side of my house. They had taken up residence in my nectarine tree it appeared (they love to eat the soft, sweet fruits, as well as the neighbors figs!) and hung around a good month or so, until all the fruit was gone! You can see this rather fearsome creature in this picture salivating over its next meal.

THIS summer it appears our new squatters are Carpenter Bees!

I was out in my veggie garden this afternoon, planting my new, flegling tomato plants when I heard a buzzing in the air close by, and I kid you not, as the insect flew by me the "wind" created by its wings caused movement of my hair!!! I looked up to see what I at first perceived to be a large (VERY large) yellow bumble bee hovering over the flowering shrub next to me. I yelled at Rod to quick, come take a look ... I’d never seen a bumble bee THIS big. Of course when he finally ambled out, not especially eager to see what was causing my latest bug-freak-out, "super bee" had disappeared. As I breathed my sigh of relief, suddenly the air was filled with the large flying insects!! Well, 3 or 4 of them at least! They kept flying back and forth over one section of fence that separates us from one of our neighbors, but would get dangerously closer to us every time. SO of course I ran for the house!….to “google“ them naturally!

To my (somewhat) relief it turns out they are male Carpenter Bees, sometimes referred to as ‘teddy bear’ bees, because of their yellowish-brownish color and fuzzy burly bodies and (happy "sigh") they do NOT bite. BUT... wait for it....the females (apparently they are all black with violet reflections on their dark wings) DO...but for now I haven't seen any of them. From what I continued to learn they would, as females duh, be at home, working their butts off preparing to lay eggs and to consolidate food.

I also learned their name comes from the fact they tunnel through wood to make their nests, they carve with their mandibles (jaws) but do not ingest the wood. Only the females excavate the tunnels, which average six to 10 inches in depth. They are also the largest bees in California, about 15 mm long (I told you they were big!) and their eggs as well, are the largest of all insect eggs.

The males are territorial and can be quite aggressive, they will hover and lie in wait for passing females ( female BEES happily, not female humans!). Like I mentioned earlier, I was distressed to learn the females DO sting, but somewhat placated by the fact they have to be pretty upset to do so. I mean, hey, we're all "sista's" right?...I'm sure we'll get along just fine. FYI, the males simply don't have the necessary apparatus to sting. But who needs to sting when you are that big, loud and scary looking!

UC Davis emeritus entomology professor Robbin Thorp says he tries to convince people to learn to live with these bees as “they are important pollinators in our environment and have potential as pollinators of some crops.” So, ok Dr Thorp, I'll do my best! Seems I really don't have much say in the matter. I'll try to remember how beneficial they are in their pollination of my flowers.


What do you suppose?
A bee sat on my nose.
Then what do you think?
He gave me a wink
And said, "I beg your pardon,
I thought you were the garden."
~English Rhyme