The bees can more easily tunnel through woods that are soft and with a straight grain. Wood Damage and Telltale SignsĮastern species of carpenter bees prefer softwoods such as cedar, redwood, cypress, pine, and fir. There is one generation per year in the northern states, but sometimes two generations in the southern United States. These new adults require shelter during the winter and they hibernate within their old nest gallery and then emerge the following spring. They collect and store pollen in the existing galleries but also spend much of their time just huddled together inside the same gallery where they developed. All of the new adult bees typically remain in their gallery for several weeks then chew through the cell partitions and venture outside in late August to feed. The life cycle (egg, larva, pupa, adult) is completed in approximately seven weeks, although developmental time varies depending on temperature. Larvae feed on the pollen/nectar food mass, which is sufficient food for them to develop to the pupal stage then the adult stage. A female often creates six to 10 partitioned brood cells in a linear row in one gallery, and she dies soon thereafter. The female forms a food ball at the far end of an excavated gallery, lays an egg on top of the mass, and then walls off the brood cell with a plug of chewed wood pulp. The larval provision consists of a mixture of pollen and regurgitated nectar formed into a ball. She excavates the gallery at the rate of about 1 inch in six days.Įach female bee creates a series of provisioned brood cells in a gallery. She bores into the wood perpendicular to the grain then turns at about a right angle (about 90 degrees) and excavates along the wood grain for 4 to 6 inches to create a gallery (tunnel). In order to create an entirely new nest, the female uses her strong jaws (mandibles) to excavate a clean-cut, round nest entrance hole that is slightly less than a half-inch wide, approximately the diameter of her body. She may reuse an existing gallery, lengthen an existing gallery, or excavate a new gallery from an existing entrance hole. Because gallery construction is a time- and energy-consuming process, the female preferentially refurbishes an old nest rather than creating a new one. Territorial males hover nearby as mated females begin nesting activities. Male and female carpenter bees emerge in the spring (April and early May) and mate. Galleries contain the remnants of wood pulp separating each brood cell. Numerous nest galleries in wood, with arrow pointing to nest entrance hole. Numerous carpenter bees often occupy the same piece of wood, with nest galleries occurring close to each other (Figure 2), but each carpenter bee behaves independently of the other bees.įigure 2. Each female bee has its own separate nest gallery inside the wood where its offspring develop. Biology and Life HistoryĬarpenter bees are solitary insects that do not form colonies. Bumble bees are social insects that live in colonies with nests typically located in the ground. Unlike carpenter bees, bumble bees have a very hairy abdomen with yellow markings and they also have large pollen baskets on their hind legs. Carpenter bees have a dense brush of hairs on their hind legs.Ĭarpenter bees resemble bumble bees as they are similar in size except for their head, with the bumble bee’s head being much narrower than the width of the thorax. The female has an entirely black head, whereas the male has yellow or white markings. The head is almost as wide as the thorax. The thorax is covered with yellow, orange, or white hairs. The upper surface of their abdomen is largely bare and appears shiny black (Figure 1). Shetlar, OSU Entomology.)Ĭarpenter bees are large (~three-quarters- to 1-inch long) and robust. virginica, with the common name of carpenter bee.įigure 1. A number of native carpenter bees also occur in the western United States. Two native species, Xylocopa virginica and Xylocopa micans, occur in the eastern United States. Large carpenter bees belong to the genus Xylocopa. These bees do not consume wood they feed on pollen and nectar and are important plant pollinators. Carpenter bees get their common name due to the females' habit of excavating galleries in wood to create nest sites for their young.
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