He knew this was a stingless male carpenter bee because he saw a yellow blaze on its “forehead.” On a field trip, an entomology professor left students aghast when he snatched a passing carpenter bee out of the air, holding it buzzing in his hand. But not to worry, he can’t hurt you because he doesn’t have a stinger, which is a modified female ovipositor, an organ for laying eggs. To add to the threat, he buzzes loudly and may hover right in your face. He puts on a good show to keep you away, but he’s all bluff. It’s the male bee that is harassing you because he is guarding the nest site from predators while the female works. YOU’D HAVE TO WORK TO GET ONE TO STING YOU!

After the female provisions the nest with pollen and several of her eggs, the pair will move on.Ĭarpenter bees can sometimes leave the homeowner with a bit of a mess: slight wood damage that can be made much worse when woodpeckers discover the nest site. They’re busy creating a tunnel-like nest site in wood around your home but they won’t live there. These solitary bees don’t even have a hive to go home to. It may seem like there’s a whole hive of bees when they’re chasing you away, but you’re probably just seeing a pair, or maybe a couple of pairs, of carpenter bees. They’re pretty aggressive, noisy, and diving and swooping at you when you come near. Then you remember that they seem to show up every spring at about this time and in the same place, too. WHAT ARE THOSE BIG BLACK BEES? By Chris Williams on April 29, 2019.

Black bee images