Source webinar: Carpenter Bees, Great Southeast Pollinator Course Week One (June 16, 2026)
Presenters: Whitney Ottinger; Dr. Bethany Harris
Runtime: 1:21:08
Audience: Home gardeners, school and community gardens, growers, county agents, and Great Southeast Pollinator Census volunteers
Credit: No applicator CEU. Educators who attended the live session earn 1 PLU.
These twelve prompts direct learners to specific segments and, taken together, give a course developer a ready outline for subdividing the recording into Moodle subsections. Each segment is a coherent learning unit; adjacent segments do not overlap. The audience Q&A blocks (19:33–23:08 and 1:11:07–1:19:22) sit between and after these instructional segments and can be offered as optional viewing.
Review Task 1
Watch: 1:31 – 5:00
Task: Summarize what a “systems approach” to pest management means and why Ottinger applies it to carpenter bees.
Key Points to Identify:
- Looking at how parts of a garden are interrelated rather than in isolation
- Weighing environmental benefit against labor, frustration, and financial cost
- Her two learning objectives: why carpenter bees matter, and how to discourage unwanted nesting
Review Task 2
Watch: 6:03 – 8:34
Task: Describe how to distinguish a carpenter bee from a bumblebee and how to tell the two carpenter bee species apart.
Key Points to Identify:
- Xylocopa virginica (eastern, “woodcutter”) is the primary species; “shiny hiney” vs. “fuzzy fanny”
- Carpenter bees are stronger, more agile flyers, especially the males
- Xylocopa micans (Southern) — paler yellow hairs, wider eye spacing, nests in dead wood/logs rather than buildings
Review Task 3
Watch: 8:36 – 13:18
Task: Trace the carpenter bee life cycle and explain how a female builds and provisions her nest.
Key Points to Identify:
- Males emerge early March, females shortly after; males have no stinger, females rarely sting
- Female pushes wood out (sawdust piles), rolls a pollen-and-nectar ball, lays an egg, seals each cell; tunnels ~½ inch wide, 6–7 inches long
- Solitary structure: one primary female lays eggs; secondary and tertiary females mainly guard
Review Task 4
Watch: 13:40 – 16:15
Task: Explain the carpenter bee’s relationship with purple passionflower and why buzz pollination makes these bees valuable.
Key Points to Identify:
- Passiflora incarnata anthers and stigma sit on a stalk at the right height to contact the bee’s back
- Native bees pollinate up to 15% of US agricultural crops
- Buzz pollination (sonication) shakes pollen from tomatoes, blueberries, peppers, eggplant
Review Task 5
Watch: 16:15 – 19:14
Task: Describe the kinds of damage carpenter bees can cause and the prevention steps Ottinger recommends.
Key Points to Identify:
- Structural damage develops slowly, over years of reuse; woodpeckers can cause more visible damage hunting larvae
- Paint or seal exposed wood; move scrap lumber away from structures
- Insecticide is a last resort for significant infestations threatening the structure
Review Task 6
Watch: 23:08 – 28:41
Task: List the field cues Harris gives for identifying carpenter bees while counting.
Key Points to Identify:
- Smooth black abdomen with plumose hairs on the thorax; hovering, fast flight near flowers and wood structures
- Males have a yellow or white face patch and cannot sting; females have an all-black face and can sting
- Carpenter bees nest in wood (solitary) vs. bumblebees in the ground
Review Task 7
Watch: 28:41 – 35:02
Task: Explain what nesting galleries are and how to build, place, and maintain a DIY nesting box.
Key Points to Identify:
- Galleries are tunnels in untreated wood where the female provisions a pollen ball and larvae develop
- Untreated softwood (pine); about a half-inch entrance hole (NC State); place away from structures
- Morning sun / afternoon shade to avoid overheating; inspect each season and replace as they weather (pathogens)
Review Task 8
Watch: 36:01 – 40:36
Task: Describe the mechanism of buzz pollination and the key findings from the DeLuca et al. research.
Key Points to Identify:
- Large bees cling to flowers with poricidal anthers and vibrate to shake pollen loose
- Average buzzing frequency ~130 Hz; forces up to 80× the bee’s body weight
- Pollen collects on plumose hairs and is carried back to feed the larvae
Review Task 9
Watch: 43:40 – 50:52
Task: Summarize the UGA wildflower trial and which plants attracted carpenter bees.
Key Points to Identify:
- 32 native species started from seed and field-planted at Griffin (May 2017); evaluated for growth, pest pressure, and pollinator activity
- First-year bloomers (e.g., butterfly milkweed, coreopsis/tickseeds); frost and New England asters bloom late (Aug–Oct)
- Carpenter bees favored Asteraceae (Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, Helenium, asters) and mint-family (Lamiaceae) salvias
Review Task 10
Watch: 50:54 – 56:40
Task: Report the crepe myrtle cultivar findings and the elements of a year-round carpenter bee habitat.
Key Points to Identify:
- ‘Seminole’ (pink, medium) and ‘Victor’ (red, dwarf) were top attractors; carpenter bees showed no clear shrub-size preference
- Provide nectar and pollen spring through fall, with overlapping bloom times
- Layer vegetation (trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, ground covers) and include shelter and moisture
Review Task 11
Watch: 1:00:14 – 1:06:32
Task: Explain nectar robbing and the foraging, water, shelter, and woody-plant choices Harris recommends.
Key Points to Identify:
- Nectar robbers slit the base of tubular flowers (e.g., salvias) and take nectar without pollinating; generalist foragers active warm mornings to midday
- Provide moisture (flagstones, bare soil, puddling areas), overwintering sites (logs, leaf litter), and sunny resting spots
- Woodies for larger bees: Vitex ‘Daytona Heat’ series (UGA-bred), sweet shrub, American beautyberry
Review Task 12
Watch: 1:07:42 – 1:10:35
Task: Describe how to participate in the Great Southeast Pollinator Census and the tools Harris recommends.
Key Points to Identify:
- August 21–22, 2026; pick one flowering plant and count for 15 minutes
- Count each landing event (a bee that leaves and returns is counted again); carpenter bees are a listed category
- Use the census counting/ID guide and count sheet; a phone camera helps with magnification, ID, and record-keeping
Segmentation note for course developers
The twelve tasks above map cleanly onto two presenter halves: Tasks 1–5 (Ottinger, ~1:31–19:14) and Tasks 6–12 (Harris, ~23:08–1:10:35). Each task range is a candidate Moodle subsection. Optional audience-discussion segments — Ottinger Q&A (19:33–23:08) and Harris Q&A (1:11:07–1:19:22, including male overwintering, egg counts of three to five, and foraging range) — can be added as supplementary clips.
Processed for UGA Center for Urban Agriculture / Great Southeast Pollinator Course Archives
Source: Corrected SRT (Stage 1) — GTBOP_Transcript_2026-06-16_CarpenterBees.srt (286 blocks); Archive Package (Stage 2) for structure