Carpenter Bee

insects · builders · wood-lovers

Wood tunnel architects. Carpenter bees burrow into dead wood and bamboo to build their nests, drilling perfectly straight tunnels where they lay their eggs. Each tunnel becomes a cozy apartment where a baby bee grows and develops.

Huge bee family. There are around 500 different species of carpenter bees spread across 31 subgenera, making them one of nature's biggest groups of wood-boring insects.

Mostly tunnel builders. Nearly every carpenter bee species digs into hard plant material like dead wood, but a few special ones in the Proxylocopa group prefer to burrow in soil instead.

Solo workers. Carpenter bees are mostly solitary bees, meaning each female builds and manages her own nest all by herself without help from other bees in a hive.