Carpeter Bees Nest Eggs

As the name implies carpenter bees love wood.

Carpeter bees nest eggs.

Aside from trees carpenter bees make nests in buildings and other man made constructions. Examples of this type of social nesting can be seen in the species xylocopa sulcatipes 10 and xylocopa nasalis 11. Carpenter bees live in individual nests in softwood which is why you can find these bees in porches old trees or any other structure with soft wood. Carpenter bees have a rather unusual reproduction process.

Bumble bees typically nest within the ground while carpenter bees burrow into wood to lay their eggs. Instead they burrow into soft woods such as the siding of a house to live in and lay larvae. They are solitary bees and are not part of a larger hive community. Instead they build their nests within the holes they create in wood.

The female carpenter bee is the one who makes the hole by chewing through the wood. Carpenter bees don t make either of these types of nests. That means it s quite typical to see multiple queens using any one hole. Once their nest is complete they lay their eggs inside it and then tend to the larvae that hatch.

If it s shiny and hairless it s a carpenter bee. Where the eggs lie. By comparison solitary wasps or bees are not associated with a large nest. Carpenter bees cicada killers and mud daubers.

As explained in our carpenter bee control article the first female will lay 5 10 eggs and these offspring will try to utilize the nest from whence they were born. The carpenter bee is so called because of where it chooses to make it s home. Like most insects carpenter bees lay eggs however the location of these eggs is rather peculiar. The bees also have different nesting habits bumblebees nest in an existing cavity often underground e g in abandoned rodent burrows whereas carpenter bees tunnel into wood to lay their eggs.

If the wood is badly maintained carpenter bees will take advantage of it. Carpenter bee with shiny abdomen left bumblebee right. Bumblebees genus bombus nest in the ground usually in abandoned rodent nests and live in social communities carpenter bees genus xylocopa are solitary bees that burrow into wood you can differentiate the two by examining the dorsal upper side of the abdomen. The carpenter bee is a large robust nearly black bee that bores tunnels into untreated.

In fact only one individual normally occupies each nest or burrow. You could say they begin their obsession with wood at a very young age. The most common solitary bees and wasps include. Carpenter bees are traditionally considered solitary bees though some species have simple social nests in which mothers and daughters may cohabit.