Carpenter Bees (6524)

People who complain about bumblebees flying about under the eaves of their homes are probably being annoyed by carpenter bees. Bumblebees are large social bees 1/2 to 1 inch long, with black and yellow or, rarely, black and orange body markings. Their nests are underground and they spend most of their time traveling between the nest and the flowers from which they obtain food.

Carpenter bees resemble bumblebees in both size and appearance, but are not social insects. They construct their nests in trees or in frame buildings. Most of the top of the abdomen of carpenter bees is without hairs and is shiny black in color. By contrast, the abdomen of bumblebees is fully clothed with hairs, many of them yellow in color. If you see a number of large bees hovering near the eaves of the house or drilling in wood, you have carpenter bees. There is only one species of the large carpenter bees, Xylocopa virginica, which is encountered in Pennsylvania.

For more information, please visit this Penn State Fact Sheet.

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Penn State Entomology Department

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

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