Garden Pests and Diseases: Friend or Foe #2, 1 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
Okay - margu's question first. Your big black "bumblebee" is most likely a carpenter bee - see picture below. This is a pretty good pollinator, but she might also tunnel holes in your unfinished wood where she can find it. The females might sting if you try to hold them in your bare hand, but otherwise they are pretty much all "bark" and no sting. The males especially will buzz at you, trying to act all tough while they cruise for females.

This is a picture of a poor, tired carpenter bee, but you can see the relative characteristics. The thorax (middle) starts out fuzzy and yellow, but often gets worn away as it is in this picture as the bee goes in and out of the tunnels it excavates in wood. The abdomen (the back part beneath the wings) is all black. This is unlike the bumble bee which has fuzzy yellow at the top part of the abdomen.