Carpeter Bees Nest Eggs

Carpenter bees don t make either of these types of nests.

Carpeter bees nest eggs.

Instead they burrow into soft woods such as the siding of a house to live in and lay larvae. If it s shiny and hairless it s a carpenter bee. Aside from trees carpenter bees make nests in buildings and other man made constructions. Carpenter bee with shiny abdomen left bumblebee right.

The carpenter bee is a large robust nearly black bee that bores tunnels into untreated. The female carpenter bee is the one who makes the hole by chewing through the wood. That means it s quite typical to see multiple queens using any one hole. 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.

Carpenter bees are traditionally considered solitary bees though some species have simple social nests in which mothers and daughters may cohabit. Carpenter bees can be attracted to wood that is either new or decayed. Like most insects carpenter bees lay eggs however the location of these eggs is rather peculiar. By comparison solitary wasps or bees are not associated with a large nest.

The most common solitary bees and wasps include. You could say they begin their obsession with wood at a very young age. They are solitary bees and are not part of a larger hive community. Carpenter bees have a rather unusual reproduction process.

Holes cracks and splinters are inviting to these bees. In fact only one individual normally occupies each nest or burrow. Where are carpenter bee nests commonly found. Carpenter bees cicada killers and mud daubers.

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 so called because of where it chooses to make it s home. As the name implies carpenter bees love wood. Examples of this type of social nesting can be seen in the species xylocopa sulcatipes 10 and xylocopa nasalis 11.

If the wood is badly maintained carpenter bees will take advantage of it. Once their nest is complete they lay their eggs inside it and then tend to the larvae that hatch. Where the eggs lie. 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.