Large Carpenter Bees

Save native bees! The European honey bee gets a lot of media attention, but they are not the bees we need most in the Americas. As pollinators, bees co-evolved with flowering plants; so, even though there are thousands of bee species, only around 90 are native to the Bay Area. The name of the western carpenter bee (Xylocopa californica) comes from their nesting behavior, since nearly all carpenter bees burrow into hard plant material such as dead wood.

The carpenter bee is a bee of many talents. They pollinate some open-faced or shallow flowers, but they can also "rob" some flowers by slitting an opening along the base of the flower to get nectar without pollinating. These bees also perform floral sonication, or "buzz pollination," where they grab onto a flower and vibrate at specific frequencies to "unlock" the nectar and pollen. Different flowers require different frequencies, so these bees are veritable musicians!