I have a large number of these chaps on my Wisteria. They are rather large - around 1" long and don't seem to appreciate being watched! They fly at you if you stand and stare, though they don't seem angry enough to sting, more curious?
Any ideas what they are anyone?
OOPs can't type!
This message was edited Mar 31, 2006 2:47 PM
A second picture
Gees Okus i done no what type of beee that is .
But i hope you but his lights out thay make my skin crawl
It looks like a bumblebee. You don't have the killer bees do you? I've seen them on nature shows, but can't remember if they resemble a bumblebee or not. I work outside right alongside most bees. They don't ever go after me. The killer bees don't like the carbon dioxide we breath out. Sets them off. Hope you find out what this is. I'll be watching this thread.
Could be a Bumble bee, but most likely a Carpenter bee, which look like a bumble but is a solitary bee. They are out and about earlier than Bumbles.
I'll have to research those. I don't think I've ever seen one in around here. I'm pretty sure I had honeybees a couple of weeks ago. They were on the apple cores in the compost pile. I hope they were honeys. With the mite scare I'm always afraid they'll die out.
Your bee looks like the Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica) http://bugguide.net/node/view/3509
I have these things in my yard too and I hate them. They love my azaleas and blueberries and are very defensive of them. Sometimes they will just fly around me like they are scoping me out or something. I have also had them chase me all over my yard. Try running from them in a pair of flip-flops LOL.
They are harmless and outstanding pollinators. Better than Bumbles for early crops. The only harm they do is bore holes in wood (untreated) for thier nests. Sheds are built of untreated pine and they do use them. In return they pollinate my melons. Have a lot of them on the blueberries now, I usually let a few of the winter brassicas seed to have an early attraction for them.
Thanks everyone. I think KennedyH has it right.Eastern Carpenter Bee.
I knew they were too big for honey bees and not hairy enough for Bumbles, but thought that there were too many for solitary bees. There are a good dozen zooming about!
Glad they are not actually attacking bees!!
The carpenter bees will also bore holes into TREATED wood. I recently found this out when I had to replace some rotted beams in my carport. I used pressure treated pine to replace the rotted beams. It has only been a matter of months since the new 2 x 4s went in and the carpenter bees have already burrowed out several holes! The problem is not just the entry hole, which is visible, but the bees continue to bore deep into the wood in a horizontal path. I have a pile of sawdust about 2 inches high under one of the bore holes.
I try to cooperate with all of nature and let things "bee," , but in this case I'm going to have to use the method I've heard of for eliminating the bees, which is to plug their holes with cotton soaked in wasp killer. I'll try to chase them out of their hiding places before plugging the holes. In order to keep them around, I'll give them their own boards somewhere in the garden to drill their holes without concern on my part that they are (once again) destroying supporting beams by opening holes that allows moisture and rot to set in. I've noticed they prefer sheltered areas under a covering (such as my carport beams). They can bore holes amazingly fast!
Jeremy
I wanted to bing this thread up again because these are out and about right now.
I am trying to find a thread from last year about bees that look like tghis -- one set has the black spot (like the ones pictures above) and one set doesn't.
These bees, or some bees, or some flying insect that probably isn't termites, have eaten the wood shutters off my house in back, where it is shaded. If these are the culprits, I need to get rid of them, and as okus says, they come right up to you and stare at you. They are easy to catch with a butterfly net. The quesiton is: should I?
Can somebody give me a definitive answer on spot vs no spot? For some reason I thought Claypa and Wallaby were involved in the conversaiton, but I can't find the thread.
Suzy
