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Most people think of bees as yellow-colored insects with black stripes. But there are other varieties: black individuals. Carpenter bees are found in the wild, taming is not yet possible. In total, there are more than 700 varieties of carpenter bees, depending on the distribution area: American, German, African, Sicilian, European, Central Russian.
Carpenter bee: description with photo
The common carpenter bee has a black body, purple wings. It got its unusual name because of the love to settle in attics, trees, wooden posts. Insects do not form large families, do not differ in aggressive behavior towards humans. Large shaggy legs allow the insect to carry large amounts of pollen.
What a carpenter bee looks like
The appearance makes it possible to often confuse a variety of bees with a fly, a bumblebee. It is a large black bee with a dense, rounded body. The females are larger than the male, the body size is 2-3 cm. In the area of the head, the color has a bluish or purple tint. The carpenter has purple wings with blue veins. The body, 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 a carpenter feeds on nectar.
Only female carpenter bees have a sting. Tree drones cannot sting. After a bite, the woodworm loses its sting, dies.
Distribution area
The distribution area 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, 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 the Moscow region.
What wood 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 are especially fond of white, yellow acacia.
Carpenter bees soak pollen with saliva, nectar. Microbes in saliva activate the fermentation process. The result is bee bread or bee bread.
Life cycles of carpenter bee breeding features
The black wood bee, a carpenter, is a loner, does not live in a family. The female creates a separate house, separate offspring. To nest, the bee digs a tunnel in 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 terrain, males choose higher elevations so that it is more convenient to patrol the territory. During this period, the females begin to fly higher in order to quickly meet the long-awaited gentleman.
At the bottom of the tunnel dug in the wood, a nutritious mass of nectar and pollen is laid. Eggs are laid in it. The larva emerging from the egg will feed on these reserves until the stage of an adult carpenter bee.Directly above the egg, a female black tree bee constructs a partition of small particles and sawdust glued together with saliva.
Each cell serves for its own egg, a new cell is created on top, a whole multi-storey structure is being erected.
The carpenter bee preserves the nest until the middle of autumn, and all this time it protects it. Then the carpenter bee dies.
The larva turns into a pupa at the end of summer. Young black carpenter bees remain in their burrow during the winter and only fly out in the spring. It is then that young black bees with blue wings can be seen. Black carpenter bees begin to create their own nests at the end of May.
Whether the bee bites the carpenter or not
Carpenter bees rarely show aggression towards humans. If you do not try to destroy or interfere with her, then she is peaceful. When meeting with a person, in the absence of danger, it calmly continues its path. If you tease and try to grab these insects, you can get a bite that is quite painful. At the same time, 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 rather poisonous. If a person is healthy and does not suffer from hypersensitivity, then a tumor forms at the site of the bite.
The poison of the carpenter bee has a depressing effect on the human nervous system. Therefore, a nervous shock often becomes a side effect of the bite of such an insect.
In order to avoid unpleasant consequences, it is recommended to immediately pull out 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 from an aqueous solution of ammonia to the wound in a ratio of 1: 5.
- Bandage the wound.
In the absence of ammonia, many experts advise applying salt to the wound. It must be mixed with water to a thick slurry consistency. It will be possible to reduce pain, relieve painful swelling, and reduce an allergic reaction.
Another way of traditional medicine that helps with a tree bee sting is dandelion milky juice. The sting should be removed, the wound should be thoroughly moistened with juice.
How to deal with wood bees
The fight against wood bees is carried out by several available means. It is important not to kill bees in large numbers, since woody insects are rare and are included in the Red Book. But leaving them from year to year on the site is not recommended, since insects are dangerous in large numbers for humans. Children most often suffer, insects are the most dangerous for allergy sufferers.
The blue carpenter bee can be a real disaster if it settles in the logs of a house or in a barn. The most popular and easiest way is to use loud music. It will help if woody insects appear in the garden or on the site. It is enough to take the audio system with loud bass out into the street, after a while you can find a positive result. The main thing is that the neighbors do not mind.
How to get rid of a carpenter bee in your home
It will not work to get rid of the carpenter bee in the house with the help of loud music - there are too many inconveniences for the residents themselves. Therefore, other methods are used:
- boric acid or carbaryl - used to destroy active hornets' nests;
- specialized powdered pesticides;
- tree bee trap.
The trap is used not only in the house, but also on the site. It is easy to make with your own hands.
How to destroy a carpenter 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 there are no such means at hand, there are more readily available substances:
- a carburetor cleaner - any motorist can find it in the garage, and the bees will not die from spraying this substance, but will quickly leave their habitat;
- gasoline, diesel fuel - they are poured directly into the nests, and the action occurs almost immediately, after the liquids enter the nests of the wood bee;
- mechanical action helps if there are not many bees on the site, in which case they can be knocked down with a racket or a net, and then crushed.
With a mechanical method of destruction, it is important to be careful so that the insect does not bite. There can be complications, especially if you have an allergic reaction. It is necessary to knock down a hovering 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 life, uses old, rotten trees, boards, 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 woody insect is listed in the Red Book. Attempts to domesticate this species have failed.
