A Difference in Perception

Perhaps you recall my mentioning a big black bumblebee that lives in my yard. I’ve only ever seen one at a time, and it has been here since I was a kid.

Well, obviously that’s not the same bee. Unless it’s not really a bee. But we won’t invent weird stories here today.

I checked on the internet to see how bumblebees propagate, so I wouldn’t accidentally destroy a nest with my digging and “improvements.”

It’s not a bumblebee. It’s a carpenter bee.

The first site I checked said:

“Spring has sprung! Ornamental trees are blooming, flowers are growing and insects are awakening. This is an exciting time of year. Mother nature gets to show us that she is omnipotent - nothing can stop her. And one of her creatures which is active now is the carpenter bee.”

And then it goes on to tell how to destroy them. You want to destroy them, it says, because they bore holes into wood to lay their eggs. And because the male bees are curious and will buzz around people. This buzzing scares people into thinking they are being attacked.

In fact, the male bee does not have a stinger. Female bees have a stinger but they only use it to guard their nest.

So let’s decimate the bees because people are stupid?

I thought we had grown past things like this.

Here’s the rest of the story. The bees use the same nest year after year. They lay about 5 eggs. The male dies shortly after he propagates. The black female hangs around and guards the nest until the young hatch a year later.

If I only ever see one big black female bee (the males are golden) at a time, there is obviously no infestation, and I really like having her come around to check things out when I’m watering the yard.

I didn’t take this picture, it came from the internet. (http://www.whatsthatbug.com/carpenter.html) This is not the “how to kill it” site. My camera is digital. By the time I press the button and the camera takes the picture, the bee has traveled on.