Black Carpenter Bee
I happened to notice this pretty thing when I was walking by a patch of annual salvia. It’s a black carpenter bee and obviously a pollinator…and that, my friends, is the total of what I know about this bee. The whole sub species of bees eludes me so if anyone can tell me more about this little guy (or girl) please do. I haven’t seen one of these around so was happy to run across it and spent some time watching him…or her.
Apparently black carpenter bees slit trumpet shaped flowers to get to the pollen. Because they can not reach down the throat of the bloom, they will drill tiny holes at the base and pull pollen through the holes. It looks to me like he (she?) already had quite a bit to carry but the bee didn’t think so.
Watching pollinators at work always fascinates me. As is their way, I was completely ignored, and the bee went about it’s business with a focus I wish I had some days. The amount of pollen it can carry is a marvel, and I thought his (her?) eyes were beautiful.
and zooooom…off to the next blossom.
The bee checked the openings of the trumpets and if it decided a flower was worth working on, but fed from the base. Pretty cool. I’ll have to learn more about black carpenter bees since we are now neighbors.
This spring I was on a mission to plant for pollinators. My landscape is new and I’ve focused on cleaning invasives and planting native trees and shrubs, so had a dearth of food sources for my pollinating buddies. I bought what I could at local nurseries ans a quick fix until I was more established. It’s paid off.
The Year of the Pollinator Lawn
Seed Sowing for the Pollinator Garden
I have a lot of carpenter bees in my garden, I think because I’ve set some scrap lumber around for them to make their nest holes in (which I did because they thought the siding on my house was the perfect place for that). It’s really funny to watch my dogs catch and eat them though, they’ve gotten quite good at catching them for an afternoon snack.
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marvelous captures! I love these bees.
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I had not seen them around here. They are very attractive little guys and I am delighted to have the opportunity to learn one more thing. As far as photos, the captures were an accident. I am clueless. Just starting to learn but what fun it is.
Fantastic photos. Look at all the pollen on the bee’s legs.
Mary Pellerito recently posted..A Passion for Tomatoes
I know! I loved the pollen. My eyesight is poor and when I first saw the bee fly by I thought it was black and yellow carpenter bee. Thank goodness for digital pictures, it allows me to see the details.
I love these bees, too, and have a special place for them in my garden. You can tell boys from girls because the male carpenter bee has a white face.
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I did not know that. Now I do. Thank you for the info! I’m going to have to keep an eye out for males, there must be some around.
we have these bees in droves…they are reeking havoc on our barn. but you gotta love any kind of pollinator.
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I understand that they can cause damage but I have been lucky enough not to have this happen. On a barn I imagine it is difficult to control. Hopefully they will stick to the dead trees I have about and leave my house alone.
I saw the link to here at FB. I have lots of bees and wasps, and a few butterflies, which I’m finally starting to see more of. There was a bee that looked like this one, I’m thinking, that I only saw a few times over a period of a week or two. Now, I’m not seeing it.
I love your photos and observations! I am also in the process of finding more native plants, but may have exhausted my local sources.
Natives aren’t always easy to find in the plant industry. Keep asking your local sources to carry them and maybe they will pick them up. Nearly Natives in GA and Fairweather Gardens (PA I think) are two good sources for mail order. The more natives you plant, the more wildlife you will have. I had nothing much last year ad in a single year of planting have far more birds and pollinators than I did.
Lovely pics. Carpenter bees always seem to be the first I see in the spring in Northern California. Many homeowners associate them only with the fact that they do drill teeny holes here and there. I don’t think it’s a big deal. I think it’s charming. I think of them as the teddybears of the bee kingdom.
I haven’t had problems with carpenter bees so much, but I did have issues with resin bees for awhile. If they wouldn’t pick important structural studs to hollow out it would be nice but they don’t always do that. Mine seem to prefer dead trees over the house, hopefully that trend will continue.
These poor bees get such a bad rap sometimes. We have quite a lot of them here, no doubt in part because of all the sources of decaying wood available in our surrounding woodland. I’ve never had them bother the house here, but we intentionally don’t clear all the felled or dead wood, as it serves as good habitat. When they bore holes, they’re just looking for somewhere to nest. I love watching these slow, lumbering bees, especially when they try to squeeze themselves into a flower that they don’t quite fit into! There are a lot of bee species in the Xylocopa genus. I wonder which subspecies this is?
I know no more than you I’m afraid. I’m envious of those pics – so sharp! How’d you get those pics? Lovely texture on the flower, shiny bee – wow! We have them. They nibble a bit on the upper deck but there aren’t so many that we worry. Gotta get more into these critters – so much to explore in a wildlife garden!
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Hi Karyl,
Your bee is a Melissodes bimaculata, a type of Long Horned Bee. It’s a female with the long hairs on the rear leg. You’ll notice the white mark in one of your photos on the top of the rear of the abdomen, there’s one on each side. Males have a white face and long antennae but not pollen collecting hairs on rear legs.
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They are marvelous creatures and one of my favorite pollinators. Your photos are lovely.
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