My boyfriend and I live in a duplex where each floor is smaller than the one beneath it. After we moved in, we decided to take advantage of the large, flat roof space outside our kitchen window and hang various bird feeders. It’s a lot of fun to watch the birds, especially since birds are my favorite animal. This weekend, as I looked out the kitchen window, I saw a black blur zoom past the window and then a few seconds later, it returned and hovered within a couple of feet from my face. I found myself staring face-to-antennae with a male eastern carpenter bee!
If you are one who has always been afraid of anything black, yellow and possessing a stinger, then the eastern carpenter bee has the potential to change your fear into fascination. Not known to be aggressive toward humans, the females are more interested in feeding and tending to her nest, and the males are too busy patrolling their territories to concern themselves with the likes of large, clumsy humans. And oh how territorial the males are! Our eastern carpenter bee, whom my boyfriend named “Buzz” (he said “What else are you going to name an insect that buzzes back and forth all day?”), patrols our roof all day and will chase off any insect that dares come near the flowers of our Norway maple. Not only does he chase everything from other carpenter bees to gnats, but I’ve also watched him chase insect shadows, finches, and to my amusement, sunflower seeds that I throw into the air. When Buzz is not chasing intruders, he slowly flies back and forth over the roof, stopping on occasion to hover inches in front of my face, antennae sticking straight up into the air.
Although some consider the eastern carpenter bee a pest because of the nests females make in wood, the damage caused by the bee is very small, consisting of a T-shaped tunnel in which she lays her eggs. Eastern carpenter bees do not eat wood, and therefore have no motivation to destroy anymore wood than they need to make this small nest. Instead, many consider the carpenter bee a valuable pollinator species, and some farmers have been known to put out blocks of wood around their crops to encourage the bee’s presence. As you enjoy the beautiful weather of the next few days, be sure to keep your eyes open for the eastern carpenter bee on patrol!
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