How to Tell the Difference Between Carpenter Bees and Bumblebees

It is pretty easy to figure out if you have carpenter bees or bumblebees in your backyard. Although they are both plump yellow and black insects, watch them for just a little while and pay attention to their location. Carpenter bees hover like little helicopters by the house or some structure made of wood and bumblebees cavort happily near the plants. Thus, you can often guess their identity by their flying altitude. Carpenter bees are up by the woodwork, and bumblebees are low flying insects among the vegetation.

Carpenter bees particularly like the overhang of the roof by the soffit, or the rails or support rafters of the porch. A carpenter bee will usually hover in the air in the same spot day in and day out. This is because it is a male sentinel bee. It is a posted guard. The good news is that the male carpenter bee cannot sting. The bad news is that this guard is protecting a nest nearby and the female of the nest, who incidentally can sting, is tunneling into your woodwork. The nest tunnels can run into your fascia boards or along your porch railings about ten to fifteen feet. That is definitely doing some damage to your structure.

Another telltale sign that what you're dealing with is a carpenter bee is the fact that they 'drill' perfect half inch holes into the wood of your home to make the opening to their nest. These holes look as though a maniacal carpenter with an electric drill attacked your home and are usually easily visible. Some people call carpenter bees boring bees because of their capacity to bore perfectly round holes into wood. Sometimes they cleverly hide their entrance hole on the underside of the woodwork, so take a careful look behind and under your exposed trim. The initial hole is only the tip of the iceberg, however. That is just the opening to the tunnel, which as mentioned can be quite extensive.

A way to defeat the carpenter bee is to block the entrance to its home. Some wood putty, paint, or foam agent can plug the entrance and deter the damage, but they tend to return to the same scene of the crime yearly. Eventually they are determined enough to excavate through your repairs to last year's nest. In this case there are also some chemical sprays that can be applied to the entrances to further evict them from your premises.

Although carpenter bees can also be useful in pollinating plants, they are obviously more destructive than their plump bumblebee cousins. The bumblebees are more content to play among the flowers. Bumblebees prefer to make their nests in the ground. Male and female bumblebees can sting, however, but are not aggressive like a honey bees or ground wasp, so will only sting in direct defense of the nest or some type of attack.

In general, it is highly preferable to have a smaller nest of pollen-spreading bumblebees as your friendly neighbors, rather than the house-ruining carpenter bees.