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Most people think of bees as yellow insects with black stripes. But there are other varieties: black individuals. Carpenter bees are found in the wild; domestication is not yet possible. In total, there are more than 700 varieties of carpenter bees, depending on their distribution area: American, German, African, Sicilian, European, Central Russian.
Carpenter bee: description with photo
The common carpenter bee has a black body and purple wings. It got its unusual name because of its love of living in attics, trees, and wooden posts. Insects do not form large families and are not distinguished by aggressive behavior towards humans. Large hairy legs allow the insect to bring large amounts of pollen.
What does a carpenter bee look like?
The appearance allows one to often confuse the bee species with a fly or bumblebee. This is a large black bee with a dense, round body. Females are larger than males, body size 2-3 cm. In the head area, the color has a bluish or purple tint.The carpenter has purple wings with blue streaks. The body and legs of the insect are covered with a large number of hairs. By pre-wetting them, the carpenter bee is able to collect a large amount of pollen and process it into nectar. The offspring of the carpenter moth feed on nectar.
Only female carpenter bees have a sting. Tree drones cannot sting. After being bitten, the woodworm loses its sting and dies.
Distribution area
The distribution range of carpenter bees is quite wide. The black bee, as in the photo, can be found in Central and Western Europe, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Mongolia.
On the territory of Ukraine, the carpenter bee is listed in the Red Book. In Russia, carpenter bees are found in the Urals, the North Caucasus, Stavropol, Krasnodar, and Moscow region.
What do tree bees eat?
The tree bee feeds on the nectar of more than 60 flowering plants. These are not only herbaceous plants, red clover, but also trees and shrubs. Carpenter bees especially love white and yellow acacia.
Carpenter bees soak pollen with saliva and nectar. Microbes in saliva activate the fermentation process. The result is bee bread or bee bread.
Life cycles and reproductive features of the carpenter bee
The black wood carpenter bee is a solitary bee and does not live in a family. The female creates a separate home, separate offspring. To nest, the bee digs a tunnel through dead wood. To do this, the carpenter bee uses powerful chewing jaws.
During the breeding season, drones fly around their area, trying to drive away possible rivals.To protect the area, males choose high places to make it more convenient to patrol the territory. During this period, females begin to fly higher in order to quickly meet the long-awaited gentleman.
A nutrient mass of nectar and pollen is placed at the bottom of a tunnel dug in the wood. Eggs are laid in it. The larva emerging from the egg will feed on these supplies until the adult carpenter bee stage. Directly above the egg, the female black tree bee constructs a barrier of small particles and sawdust glued together with saliva.
Each cell serves for its own egg, a new cell is created on top, and an entire multi-story structure is built.
The carpenter bee keeps the nest until mid-autumn, and all this time she guards it. The carpenter bee then dies.
The larva turns into a pupa at the end of summer. Young black carpenter bees remain in their burrow throughout the winter and only emerge in the spring. It is then that you can see young black bees with blue wings. Black carpenter bees begin to create their own nests at the end of May.
Does a carpenter bee bite or not?
Carpenter bees rarely show aggression towards humans. If you do not try to destroy or interfere with it, then it is peaceful. When meeting a person in the absence of danger, he calmly continues on his way. If you tease and try to grab these insects, you can get a bite, which is quite painful. The sting remains in the human body, as with the sting of an ordinary bee.
How dangerous is a carpenter bee sting?
It is important to understand that a tree bee sting is not just painful, but quite poisonous. If a person is healthy and does not suffer from hypersensitivity, then a tumor will form at the site of the bite.
Carpenter bee venom has a depressant effect on the human nervous system. Therefore, nervous shock is often a side effect of such an insect bite.
In order to avoid unpleasant consequences, it is recommended to immediately remove the sting. Then the algorithm of actions is as follows:
- Pull out the sting, being careful not to crush it.
- Squeeze the poison out of the wound.
- Apply gauze to the wound made from an aqueous solution of ammonia in a ratio of 1:5.
- Bandage the wound.
In the absence of ammonia, many experts advise applying salt to the wound. It needs to be mixed with water to the consistency of a thick paste. It will be possible to reduce pain, relieve painful swelling, and reduce an allergic reaction.
Another traditional medicine that helps with a tree bee sting is the milky juice of dandelion. The sting should be removed and the wound thoroughly moistened with juice.
How to deal with tree bees
Tree bees can be controlled by several available means. It is important not to destroy bees in large numbers, since tree insects are rare and are listed in the Red Book. But it is not recommended to leave them on the site from year to year, since insects are dangerous in large numbers to humans. Children are most often affected; insects pose the greatest danger to allergy sufferers.
The blue carpenter bee can be a real disaster if it takes up residence in the logs of a house or barn. The most popular and easiest way is loud music. It will help if wood insects appear in the garden or area. It is enough to take an audio system with loud bass outside, and after a while you can detect a positive result.The main thing is that the neighbors don't mind.
How to get rid of carpenter bees in your home
You won’t be able to get rid of a carpenter bee in your house using loud music - it’s too much inconvenience for the residents themselves. Therefore, other methods are used:
- boric acid or carbaryl - used to destroy active wasp nests;
- specialized powdered pesticides;
- tree bee trap.
The trap is used not only in the house, but also on the site. Easy to make with your own hands.
How to Kill a Carpenter's Bee in a Barn
In non-residential premises and on the site, the carpenter bee can be easily removed with special pesticides that eliminate active nests. If such means are not at hand, there are more accessible substances:
- carburetor cleaner - any motorist can find it in the garage, and bees will not die from spraying this substance, but will quickly leave their habitat;
- gasoline, diesel fuel - poured directly into the nests, and the effect occurs almost immediately after the liquids enter the nests of the arboreal bee;
- mechanical impact helps if there are few bees in the area, in which case they can be knocked down with a racket or net, and then crushed.
When using the mechanical method of destruction, it is important to be careful so that the insect does not bite. There may be complications, especially if there is an allergic reaction. It is necessary to knock down the suspended insect with one blow, then immediately crush it.
Conclusion
The carpenter bee is unlike the famous bright yellow insect with black stripes.The carpenter bee is large and purple, leads a solitary lifestyle, using old, rotten trees, boards, and logs as housing. Can live next to a person. The behavior is not aggressive, but the bite can be dangerous. It is worth getting rid of such neighbors, but carefully - the tree insect is listed in the Red Book. Attempts to domesticate this species have failed.
