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She repeats this process, filling the tunnel with a line of brood cells, each about an inch long. She lays a single egg on the food mass, then seals the cavity, or brood cell, with a mixture of wood pulp and saliva. Once the nest is complete, the female carpenter bee stocks the end of the tunnel with bee bread, which is a combination of flower pollen and nectar. Many tunnels are lengthened and reused year after year by successive generations of bees.Įach new occupant improves a nest by excavating wood from the end of the tunnel.Īt the extreme, nests have been found to measure up to 10 feet long. The nest, or gallery, is tunneled parallel to the grain of the wood and may extend for 6-12 inches. This entry hole extends 1-2 inches into the wood and then turns at a right angle to follow the grain of the wood. The female chews a perfectly circular hole approximately half an inch in diameter. She will reuse and expand an existing nest tunnel or bore her own. In April or May, the female carpenter bee searches for good nest sites. Bumblebees are social, living together in an underground nest. However, the bumble bee’s entire body is covered with hairs, and females have yellow patches of hair on the top of the abdomen. Carpenter bees are often mistaken for bumblebees, which are similar in size. Each female builds her own nest by tunneling into wood. Males have a yellow faces.Ĭarpenter bees are solitary bees. The abdomen, or the hind section, is shiny and black.įemales have a black face and a dense brush of black hairs on their hind legs. The thorax or midsection is covered with yellow fuzz. The holes they bore into wood are nests for their young.Įastern carpenter bees are large bees approximately 0.75-1 inch long. Large, shiny, black, and yellow bees buzzing and flying around your head.įan-shaped, yellow, or moldy stains on the sides of a structure.Ĭarpenter bees do not eat wood, they eat flower nectar and pollen. Sawdust piles below perfectly circular holes drilled into wood surfaces around your home. Signs of carpenter bees around your home or garden: Control is not necessary unless they are damaging wooden structures. Carpenter bees are a native species and like other native bees they are important pollinators,are not aggressive, and are only noticeable in late spring-early summer.