Great Southeast Pollinator Course — Week One
Aired: June 16, 2026
Presenters: Whitney Ottinger, Sustainable Agriculture Educator, UGA Center for Urban Agriculture; Dr. Bethany Harris, Director, UGA Center for Urban Agriculture (Griffin campus)
Host: Becky Griffin (co-host: Rich Braman)
Runtime: 1:21:08
Series: Great Southeast Pollinator Course
Credit: No pesticide-applicator CEU categories apply. Educators who attended the live session earn 1 PLU.
About this session
Becky Griffin opened Week One of the Great Southeast Pollinator Course with the insect she called the most controversial on the census: the carpenter bee. Two presenters from the UGA Center for Urban Agriculture split the hour.
Whitney Ottinger, Sustainable Agriculture Educator, made the case for the bee’s value. She framed pest decisions as a systems problem — weighing environmental benefit against the labor and cost of fighting an insect — then identified the eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica, whose name means “woodcutter”) and the Southern carpenter bee (Xylocopa micans). Her field test for separating carpenter bees from bumblebees: the carpenter bee has a “shiny hiney,” the bumblebee a “fuzzy fanny.” She walked through the solitary life cycle, in which one primary female bores and provisions a half-inch tunnel while secondary and tertiary females mostly guard it, and described the bee’s specialized fit with purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata). For homeowners, she put prevention before pesticides: paint or seal exposed wood, relocate scrap lumber away from structures, and treat only when damage threatens the building.
Dr. Bethany Harris, Director of the Center, turned to research and habitat. She showed nesting galleries and DIY nesting boxes — untreated softwood, a half-inch entrance hole (per NC State), morning sun and afternoon shade, replaced as they weather. On buzz pollination, she cited DeLuca et al.: carpenter bees vibrate at roughly 130 Hz and generate forces up to 80 times their body weight to shake pollen from tomatoes, blueberries, eggplant, and peppers. She summarized UGA’s wildflower trial (32 native species, Griffin campus, planted 2017) and a crepe myrtle cultivar study that flagged ‘Seminole’ and ‘Victor’ as strong bee attractors, noted that carpenter bees forage as generalists and act as nectar robbers that slit tubular salvias, and laid out year-round habitat planning.
Both presenters pointed to the Great Southeast Pollinator Census on August 21–22, where carpenter bees are one of the counting categories. A long audience Q&A covered foraging range, egg counts of around three to five, male overwintering, and how to manage nesting boxes.
Chapters
| Time | Chapter |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Welcome: the most controversial bee on the census |
| 1:31 | Whitney Ottinger: a systems approach to pests |
| 5:00 | Why carpenter bees thrive near people |
| 6:03 | Xylocopa virginica, the “woodcutter” |
| 6:47 | Shiny hiney vs. fuzzy fanny |
| 7:37 | The Southern carpenter bee (X. micans) |
| 8:36 | Life cycle: emergence, mating, and stings |
| 10:42 | How females build and provision nests |
| 12:09 | Primary, secondary, and tertiary females |
| 13:40 | A special bond with purple passionflower |
| 15:05 | Buzz pollination and the 15% crop figure |
| 16:58 | Prevention: seal the wood first |
| 19:33 | Q&A with Whitney Ottinger |
| 23:08 | Dr. Bethany Harris: identifying carpenter bees |
| 25:45 | Flight patterns and male vs. female faces |
| 28:41 | Inside the nesting galleries |
| 31:05 | Building and placing DIY nesting boxes |
| 36:01 | Buzz pollination: 130 Hz, 80× body weight |
| 40:37 | The life cycle, season by season |
| 43:40 | UGA wildflower trial: 32 native species |
| 50:01 | Which plants attract carpenter bees |
| 50:54 | Crepe myrtle study: ‘Seminole’ and ‘Victor’ |
| 54:59 | Designing year-round pollinator habitat |
| 1:00:14 | Carpenter bees as nectar robbers |
| 1:02:51 | Water, shelter, and resting sites |
| 1:05:45 | Woody plants for larger bees |
| 1:07:42 | Joining the Pollinator Census (Aug 21–22) |
| 1:11:07 | Q&A with Dr. Harris |
| 1:19:22 | Next week: bumblebees, and closing |
Questions and answers
Q: How do I tell a carpenter bee from a bumblebee?
A: Look at the abdomen. A carpenter bee has a smooth, shiny black abdomen — the “shiny hiney” — while a bumblebee has a fuzzy abdomen, the “fuzzy fanny.” Carpenter bees are also stronger, more agile flyers, and males tend to hover over flowers and wood structures. Their nesting differs too: carpenter bees bore into wood and are solitary, while bumblebees nest in the ground in small colonies.
Q: Which carpenter bee species will I see in the Southeast?
A: The eastern carpenter bee, Xylocopa virginica, is the primary species — the genus name means “woodcutter.” There is also the Southern carpenter bee, Xylocopa micans, found from southeastern Virginia to Florida and along the Gulf of Texas. The Southern bee has paler yellow hairs, slightly wider eye spacing, and usually nests in dead wood and logs rather than buildings.
Q: Are carpenter bees actually good for my garden?
A: Yes. They are native pollinators that forage a wide range of crops and flowers, and as a group native bees pollinate up to about 15% of US agricultural crops. Carpenter bees buzz pollinate tomatoes, blueberries, peppers, and eggplant, and some studies suggest they improve fruit set, and sometimes fruit size and quality, on buzz-pollinated flowers.
Q: What is buzz pollination, and why does it matter?
A: Some flowers — tomatoes, blueberries, eggplant, peppers — hold pollen inside tube-like poricidal anthers that smaller bees cannot reach. Carpenter bees cling to the flower and vibrate their thoracic muscles to shake the pollen loose. DeLuca et al. measured an average buzzing frequency near 130 Hz and forces up to 80 times the bee’s body weight.
Q: How do I keep carpenter bees from nesting in my house or deck?
A: Start with the wood, not an insecticide. Painting or sealing exposed wood makes it far less attractive for nesting. Moving scrap or untreated lumber well away from structures can redirect them. Insecticidal treatment is a last resort, used only when an infestation is significant and threatening the structure.
Q: Does carpenter bee tunneling really damage my house?
A: Usually not quickly. The tunnels are small, so serious structural problems typically develop only after years of bees returning to the same spot, enlarging old tunnels, or boring new ones. Often the more visible damage comes from woodpeckers pecking the wood to reach the larvae.
Q: How do I build a nesting box carpenter bees will use?
A: Use untreated softwood such as pine and drill a large entrance hole — NC State recommends about half an inch for carpenter bees. Place it away from structures in a spot that gets morning sun and afternoon shade, since these boxes can overheat in full sun all day.
Q: Do I have to maintain nesting boxes once they are up?
A: Yes. Inspect them each season, ideally just before early spring, and expect to replace them over time — possibly yearly — because they can harbor pathogens as they weather. Building your own keeps replacement affordable compared with commercial boxes.
Q: Which plants attract carpenter bees?
A: In UGA trials, carpenter bees favored Asteraceae such as Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, and Helenium, along with frost and New England asters, plus mint-family (Lamiaceae) plants like salvias. Other good additions include passionflower (also a Gulf fritillary host plant), blueberries, azaleas, and woodies such as Vitex (the UGA-bred ‘Daytona Heat’ series), American beautyberry, and sweet shrub. Aim for nectar and pollen from spring through fall.
Q: What does it mean that carpenter bees are “nectar robbers”?
A: When a flower is too tubular for them to enter — salvias, for example — carpenter bees cut a slit at the base of the flower and take nectar without entering or pollinating it. You can spot the hole if you check the base of tubular flowers.
Q: When should I count carpenter bees for the census?
A: The Great Southeast Pollinator Census is August 21–22, 2026. Carpenter bees are most active on warm, sunny days, early morning through midday, when nectar and pollen are freshest. Pick one flowering plant, count for 15 minutes, and tally each landing event — if a bee leaves and returns, count it again.
Q: How long do carpenter bees live, and how far do they forage?
A: They live roughly a single season, spring through summer — maybe up to about a year overall, with a lifespan outside the nest of around two months. On foraging distance, Harris noted she had not seen a clear mileage figure in the literature the way honeybees have (about three to four miles); it likely depends on how close nesting sites and forage are to each other.
Resources
- Great Southeast Pollinator Census — August 21–22, 2026. The census website includes an insect counting and identification guide and a count sheet, with carpenter bees as one of the listed counting categories.
- Southern SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) — free public PDF publications, including one on managing alternative pollinators, plus guides on building soils and weed management.
- DeLuca et al. — research on carpenter bee buzz pollination (vibration frequency and force) cited by Dr. Harris.
- Webinar recording and references — the recording and the studies Dr. Harris mentioned are posted to the pollinator course recordings page; attendees also receive a follow-up email with the link.
- Next week: Bumblebees, with Becky Griffin and Rich Hatfield (Xerces Society), tied to the Southeast Bumble Bee Atlas.
Processed for UGA Center for Urban Agriculture / Great Southeast Pollinator Course Archives
Source: Archive Package (Stage 2) — GTBOP_Archive_Summary_2026-06-16_CarpenterBees.md