Jon D
Junior Member
Posts: 22
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Post by Jon D on Jul 28, 2018 15:23:18 GMT -8
I captured this today after noticing it using a no longer active carpenter bee hole, but this is much thinner than a carpenter bee and also a little longer. Any idea? Found near Philadelphia, PA, USA.
***EDIT: I appear to have found my own answer and this is sure a new one for me. This appears to be a giant resin bee. I first saw these last year hovering around under a local pavilion and going into holes that looked like carpenter bee holes. For me, this is actually a good thing since they are destructive to carpenter bees! It proves that the paper bag I hung filled with plastic bags is working! I haven't seen one carpenter bee since stapling the bag to one of the wooden rafters... nearly two months ago!***  |
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Post by bandrow on Jul 29, 2018 6:48:00 GMT -8
Greetings,
Your ID is correct. I first encountered these in the early 2000's in southern West Virginia, at flowers of milkweed. I was completely baffled by them - having never seen such large bees in the eastern U.S. - until returning the from the trip and discovering they were an introduced species.
Curious - what is your "paper bag filled with plastic bags" technique about - some sort of deterrent? If so, how does that work?
Cheers!
Bandrow
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Jon D
Junior Member
Posts: 22
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Post by Jon D on Jul 29, 2018 11:37:42 GMT -8
Thanks, I've also been seeing a few at my butterfly bushes. Well, the bag trick was something I read about online. The idea is to take a paper bag, fill it with plastic bags like you get when you shop at Walmart, close the top and hang near the area where carpenter bees are present. Not sure why it works, but I think the plan is to trick the bees into thinking that the bag is a hornet's nest. When the wind blows, the Walmart bags inside move around and helps maintain the illusion to the bees. Whatever the case, it really did eliminate the bees for me! For years, I was using seven dust, long before I lived here the prior owners always used chlordane until it was outlawed, but something always had to be applied at least twice a summer to keep the bees away. Since hanging the bag, nothing since I hung it and that was about two months ago! So when I found out what type of bee was using their cavities, that made me even more confident that they hadn't returned because these resin bees supposedly kill them. Now my understanding is that the bag trick doesn't work for everyone, but I'd bet the people having trouble probably filled it with the wrong kind of plastic bag. Works for me is all I can say! I just have a lunch bag filled with the plastic bags stapled to a rafter. That's it!
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