Re: Is there an entomologist in the house?

In a message dated 4/7/01 1:09:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, LIpumpkin@aol.com 
writes:

<<  Barb....Carpenter Bee.......won't hurt your pumpkin or really bother you. 
 
 Drills a whole in wood (decks,fences,facia,etc) and tunnels upward quite a 
 bit and nests. 
 a real pest to home structures as it likes real wood. Of course 
 if those Fla.pumpkin stumps are as big as some lead us to 
 believe............................G
  >>

Glenn:

OK, here's what I found. Mason Bee (Osmia). It's a solitary bumble bee in the 
Megachilidae family. They are metallic black and drill holes in wood with 
geometric precision. 

Didn't see anything about a Carpenter Bee. Know about Carpenter 
Ants........Oh, you don't want an infestation of those!

I think the Mason Bee is the critter I have. It's a fat, loud bumbly-bee, not 
a dive bomber or aggressive, just a casual bee that disappears into holes it 
has drilled into wood. Females drill the holes and lay the eggs. Amazing. 
Sadly, the web article, written by a professor, states that this bee can and 
does drill holes into vines, however, I think the author would have made me 
feel better if he had stated what types of vines....woody such as a wisteria 
or green fibrous, like and AG?

At any rate, I think she has to go. May just put this stake, bee and all in 
the yard trash for pick up next week. The article says the bees will come 
back to the area they hatched from, which needs to be far away from my house!

Barb
PS...Glenn, you know one cannot judge an AG solely by the size of it's stump! 
Of course we have big ones here! Right, Tim? Tim?? 

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