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Becky Griffin: All right, so let's get started. So I am thrilled and excited that week one is carpenter bees because you know what? We wanted to get that one going because that's the one that seems to be the most controversial of all of the insects on the census.

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Becky Griffin: So I'm going to go ahead and introduce our first speaker. Our first speaker is the lovely Whitney Ottinger. She is a sustainable agriculture educator with our Center for Urban Ag and she is a whiz there. She has a great reputation already statewide for her work. She helps growers adapt systems-based approaches to farming.

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Becky Griffin: working on soil health, biodiversity, and ecological pest management. And today she's going to talk about the important role, and yes there is one, that carpenter bees play as native pollinators and their impact on crop production. So these little misunderstood drillers deserve a little more credit than we usually give them. So Whitney, I'm going to give you the floor.

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Whitney Ottinger: Well, thank you so much. Yes, thank you for that introduction. I am going to share my screen. Let's see. Let me know when you guys are seeing it.

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Becky Griffin: Looks great, Whitney.

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Whitney Ottinger: Okay, so it's in, you're not seeing a presenter view, are you?

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Rich Braman: We're seeing your slide big.

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Whitney Ottinger: All right, that is perfect. Thank you again for that introduction. My name is Whitney Ottinger and I am the Sustainable Agriculture Educator with the UGA Center for Urban Agriculture. So I get to work with the lovely team of panelists here today.

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Whitney Ottinger: And I am so excited to be talking a little bit about carpenter bees.

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Whitney Ottinger: So I have been with the Center for Urban Ag for the last four years.

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Whitney Ottinger: And a lot of my focus has been on beginner farmer programs as well as organic production.

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Whitney Ottinger: And pollinators are super, super important to both of those focus areas.

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Whitney Ottinger: And so, yeah, we'll just go ahead and jump right into it.

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Whitney Ottinger: The first thing that I want to do is set the stage of how we garden or how we live more sustainably. So one key thing is about learning a systems approach in the context of your home or your school garden, and this will look different for everybody. And what a systems approach is, is just looking at how things are interrelated rather than looking at individual parts of your system.

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Whitney Ottinger: And kind of the foundation of sustainable agriculture is all about building resiliency. It's about increasing biodiversity and also implementing some form of ecological pest management. So I use this visual for almost all of my presentations because it's pretty much applicable to like any situation that you find yourself in in your own unique system for pollinators or for specifically carpenter bees.

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Whitney Ottinger: It's important to think about all of the environmental benefits that you get with carpenters, but it's also important to think about the social and economic components as well. So if you're constantly battling them and it's costing you a significant amount of money and damage, it's not sustainable and it's time to reevaluate your options. So ideally,

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Whitney Ottinger: It might be a little bit easier said than done, but ideally we want to leverage environmental benefits without creating all of this excessive labor, frustration, and financial burden. So while we are super strong advocates for pollinators, we are also realistic as an extension

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Whitney Ottinger: and so there are times when prevention and management strategies are necessary and we're gonna talk about that and figure out a system that works best for you and the bees. I have two learning objectives that I want everyone walking away knowing and that is why carpenter bees are ecologically important and how to discourage them from nesting in unwanted places.

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Whitney Ottinger: Now, I'm sure a good number of you here today have been closely inspected or even maybe sized up by a male carpenter bee trying to decide if you are a rival male who needs to get chased off, which does not help my kind of case of explaining why they are so important.

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Whitney Ottinger: But in my opinion, their bad reputation is usually way overblown because they are important pollinators and they do play a vital role in our ecosystem. So many bees today face habitat loss.

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Whitney Ottinger: But carpenter bees are an exception here. They're actually thriving, so they have absolutely no problem living near people. There are some studies suggesting that carpenter bees actually are benefiting from urbanization and urban sprawl because of all of the potential nesting sites.

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Whitney Ottinger: And so you can find them in areas where there's lots of flowers for them to feed on, where there's lots of dead weathered wood. They typically prefer pine, cedar, redwood to nest in. And they're often seen on the siding of buildings, on decks, on outdoor patio areas. Basically anything that is made out of wood, as you all are probably familiar with.

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Whitney Ottinger: So they forage a wide variety of crops and flowers, making them a really great addition to any home garden or school garden. Just keep that in mind as we are going through everything. So there are about 500 different species of carpenter bees worldwide.

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Whitney Ottinger: In the eastern United States, there is one primary species, Xylocopa virginica, and the name Xylocopa actually translates to woodcutter. They acquired this name because they create nests by chewing these perfectly little round holes in the wood with their powerful mandibles. And so I have a picture here in the top right corner.

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Whitney Ottinger: And this is actually a very unusual habit in the bee world. In fact, most bees live underground in cavities or in nests that they have excavated in the soil or they are inhabiting pre-existing above-ground cavities like in reeds and stems or in tree hollows.

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Whitney Ottinger: Okay, so carpenter bees and bumblebees are very often mistaken for one another because they're very similar in size and they're both fuzzy and large and they're black and yellow. So the easiest way to tell these species apart is by looking at their abdomen and that is just their rear end. And so the carpenter bee will have a shiny hiney and the bumblebee will have a fuzzy fanny.

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Whitney Ottinger: Another way that you can tell them apart is knowing that the carpenter bees are actually a lot better flyers than our bumblebees. And so especially the male carpenter bees are actually quite agile. And so keep that in mind next time you're not sure whether it's a carpenter bee or a bumblebee.

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Whitney Ottinger: There is another somewhat common species of carpenter bee called the Southern Carpenter bee or Xylocopa micans. It's found in several states in the southeastern U.S. from Virginia to Florida and even along the Gulf of Texas.

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Whitney Ottinger: So the eastern carpenter bee and the southern carpenter bee look similar, but the southern carpenter bee has a little bit of some paler yellow hairs. Its eye spacing is actually a little bit wider and it has these black internal scapes.

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Whitney Ottinger: So the southern carpenter bee primarily nests in dead wood, logs, and other more natural material. They're not really going to be a pest of your buildings or your more man-made type of structures now. That's not saying that it's like that in every case, but that is typically what they lean more towards.

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Whitney Ottinger: Okay, so we are going to do an overview of their life cycle. What we typically see in Georgia for the Eastern Carpenter Bee is that males will emerge in early March and then females will emerge shortly after that, and that is when the mating starts. And remember that the males are extremely sensitive to movement, and so they will come up and inspect anything that comes around their territory.

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Whitney Ottinger: So yeah, we don't really necessarily want them buzzing around our heads, but they can't do any true harm.

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Whitney Ottinger: So I just kind of bumping us, which can still be alarming, especially if you don't know who you're up against, because the male carpenter bees do not have stingers.

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Whitney Ottinger: So they, the damage that they can inflict is very, very minimal.

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Whitney Ottinger: The males will go out and forage their own food, and the females are left to gather up all of the pollen and nectar that they need to stay alive and also to feed their young. Now the females can sting, but that's pretty rare unless you go out and try to grab them or handle them in some way.

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Whitney Ottinger: So in midsummer, most of the activity in a carpenter bee's life cycle happens inside the nest rather than outside. By this point, the females have already built their tunnels in the wood, laid their eggs earlier in the spring, and then now the larvae are developing. They're feeding on these stored, they're called pollen loaves, which is just a mixture of pollen and nectar.

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Whitney Ottinger: that the mother has provided. And over the next several weeks, these larvae will grow, molt, and then enter the pupal stage, where they will transform into adult bees. So by late summer or early fall, the new adults will emerge.

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Whitney Ottinger: They will briefly forage and feed and then they will typically return to their little wood galleries and prepare for overwintering. The following spring they will emerge, mate, and then start the cycle all over again.

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Whitney Ottinger: When female bees start to create their nest, they chew their tunnels, like we've talked about before, into these almost perfect little holes. And remember that they are not eating the wood. They are actually pushing it out of the entrance, and so that is usually a good indicator if you have little piles of sawdust. That's a good indicator of carpenter bee activity.

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Whitney Ottinger: And like we already discussed, they prefer softer woods like pine or other conifers over harder woods. So once they have their little tunnels, the females roll their pollen and nectar up like a little soccer ball, and then she lays an egg on top of it. Then she seals it shut with a wall of her saliva and sawdust.

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Whitney Ottinger: and then goes out, gathers more pollen, rolls it up into a ball, and continues in that same sequence until she gets to the entrance where she then seals it up and flies away. So the tunnels are typically about one half inch in diameter and six to seven inches long, although they may be as long as a foot if the same tunnel is used in successive years.

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Whitney Ottinger: Now they are considered a solitary bee because each female creates and provisions her own nest and so they aren't as social as honeybees. But this is the perfect segue into this next slide. So in many cases the female carpenter bee

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Whitney Ottinger: has a very straightforward, solitary social structure, or lack thereof. So there's one female per nesting tunnel who is responsible for doing absolutely everything. Now, in some cases, multiple females can be in a nesting tunnel, especially when nesting sites or materials are limited. So there will still only be one primary female who lays all the eggs and gathers the pollen and nectar.

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Whitney Ottinger: But yes, if you're wondering if they make honey or not, no, they do not. Honeybees are the ones who go out and collect nectar and then create or produce honey and feed on that.

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Whitney Ottinger: So the secondary and tertiary females are usually just nest mates if they are there at all. They defend the nest from predators, from parasites, or any other competing carpenter bees. So they do not really contribute to the care and the feeding of the young. Sometimes the primary female is actually feeding the secondary and tertiary as well.

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Whitney Ottinger: One little fun fact is that the tertiary female can sometimes overwinter a second time and become the primary female the following year. So the eastern carpenter bee will visit a wide variety of different flowers, but it has a very special relationship with the

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Whitney Ottinger: Purple Passion Flower. That always trips me up saying the Purple Passion Flower. So that is the Passiflora incarnata. So many insects can access the nectar from the center of this flower, but they aren't really doing any pollination. That's because the flower is specifically designed for carpenter bees. So it's reproductive parts. The anthers and the stigmas are positioned on the stalk.

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Whitney Ottinger: and as the flower at the stalk above the flower at exactly the right height for carpenter bees to move through it. So as the bee drinks its nectar, it brushes against the anthers and gets pollen on its back. And then when it visits another flower, that pollen can then be transferred to the stigma, allowing fertilization to happen.

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Whitney Ottinger: So other insects will still visit this flower, but the carpenter bee is best suited to complete the pollination process. And this is just a really cool example of how flower anatomy and pollinator behavior can be very closely matched.

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Whitney Ottinger: So native bees, including carpenter bees, are incredibly important because they pollinate up to 15% of all U.S. agricultural crops. Remember that pollination is essential because it allows plants to produce fruits, vegetables, and seeds that we rely on for food.

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Whitney Ottinger: Carpenter bees are especially valuable because they use their thoracic muscles to sonicate dry pollen, a process known as buzz pollination. And this vibration helps release pollen from flowers that otherwise would be held on too tightly for other insects to be able to actually to cause some action there.

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Whitney Ottinger: So our crops like tomatoes, blueberries, peppers, eggplants, all greatly benefit from this type of pollination. In some of our crops, there's been some studies that suggest that carpenter bees can actually improve fruit set and sometimes fruit size and quality, especially on buzz pollinated flowers.

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Whitney Ottinger: So in most cases, the structural damage that is caused by carpenter bees does not happen fast. These tunnels that they create are relatively small, so serious structural issues usually only develop after many, many years, especially if the bees continue to return to the same location, start creating new tunnels, or they start enlarging existing ones.

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Whitney Ottinger: Another issue can arise when carpenter bee larvae attract predators like woodpeckers.

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Whitney Ottinger: And they can start pecking at the wood in search of the larvae, which causes even more noticeable damage than the bees themselves.

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Whitney Ottinger: So even when the structural risk is limited, carpenter bees can still create some aesthetic concerns

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Whitney Ottinger: So, of course, the holes that they're making are visible, and then there can be some staining from all around the tunnels caused by the bees droppings, which, yeah, is a little bit unsightly. So because of this, control methods may be justified, of course, if you are concerned about the strength and stability of your wood structures.

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Whitney Ottinger: If repeated tunneling is occurring or if predator damage becomes a problem, these are all very justifiable reasons where you might want to go in with a control method. So what do you do about these nesting problems?

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Whitney Ottinger: One of the simplest and most effective strategies is just going in and protecting the wood. So painting or sealing any exposed wood makes it much less attractive for them to want to start making a tunnel in the first place. You can try to redirect them by putting any scrap or untreated lumber pretty far away from any structures that you don't want them to find.

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Whitney Ottinger: Sometimes bee hotels are suggested, but they're not always as effective for larger bees. Those are more geared towards our smaller bee species. So if an infestation is very significant and it's threatening the structure, you might need to go in with an insecticidal treatment.

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Whitney Ottinger: That's not usually our first option, but it can be a part of the management plan when the damage becomes severe. So at the end of the day, it's all about balancing your needs with the needs of our pollinators and our wildlife.

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Whitney Ottinger: So kind of going off of that, as we think about sustainability in agriculture or in our everyday lives, carpenter bees are a really great reminder that everything in our system is connected. Their role goes simply beyond just

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Whitney Ottinger: Pollinating a few specialty plants, they help support crop production, flower and other ornamental plant reproduction, of course biodiversity, and overall ecosystem function. And so when we take a systems approach, we begin to see that healthy pollinator communities can also contribute to resilience in a lot of unexpected ways.

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Whitney Ottinger: So the last thing that I will leave you with is keep in mind with ecological pest management. That's not always about just controlling pests. Sometimes it's about creating an environment that supports beneficial insects that we need. And sometimes you have to do a little bit of reframing of what exactly is a pest and what is beneficial.

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Whitney Ottinger: And so I really hope this was helpful. I know that Dr. Harris will be coming in right after me and she is going to be getting a little bit more detailed with some carpenter bee research and how to apply it. And so I will go ahead and stop sharing my screen.

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Becky Griffin: Thank you, Whitney. That was great. I love the fact that you came in pro-carpenter bee.

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Becky Griffin: Yes.

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Becky Griffin: So also, we have a couple questions if you don't mind. What is the range of the Southern Carpenter bee?

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Whitney Ottinger: The Southern Carpenter bee? Okay, I have that written down on my notes because

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Whitney Ottinger: I figured that would come up. So it starts from southeastern Virginia to Florida and even along the Gulf of Texas. Okay. So pretty all over the southeast. Yes. And do they, do the carpenter bees overwinter in the tunnels, the egg tunnels?

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Becky Griffin: Yes, they do. Sorry, I just muted myself. All right. And Larry Stevens has an interesting question. In Birmingham, Alabama, he's noticed significant activity of sculptured resin bees. Are they a concern for carpenter bees? And if so, do you have any suggestions to help?

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Bethany Harris: I'm not sure what a sculpture resin bee is. It's like a sculpture? It's, uh, Dr. Harris, do you know the answer to that one? Yeah, I don't know the answer to that one. I'm familiar with that bee, but I'm not, I don't know exactly, I've not seen that, um, really ever occur here in Georgia, and so I've never really had that, that challenge before, but I am familiar with that bee.

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Becky Griffin: Yeah, it is an invasive bee. It's not a native, I know that. And I have heard anecdotally people saying that the carpenter bees are getting kicked out of the holes that they've made to make room for them. So that's definitely something probably we should be aware of, keep an eye on that.

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Becky Griffin: Do carpenter bees also pollinate red passion flower? I'm not sure what red passion flower is. Whitney, any ideas? I would assume yes, but I do not know for sure, so that might be a question that I will need to follow back up on.

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Whitney Ottinger: Okay. Steve would like a little more information on sonication. Okay. Well, that is perfect because I know Dr. Harris is about to talk a whole lot more in detail about that. And so I'm sorry to be delegating these questions, but I know there's a lot more good information to be coming with Dr. Harris's presentation. Okay. Well, we will wait on that. Let me give you just one or two more. Let's see.

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Whitney Ottinger: What are the tertiary, primary, and secondary bees? What's the difference between them? So the secondary female is more so the one who is defending the tunnel. She is defending against those parasites, any other competing carpenter bees.

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Whitney Ottinger: And then the tertiary, from my research, it just seems like she is kind of hanging out and waiting for the opportunity to overwinter a second time and become the primary that following year. Okay. All right. And how long do carpenter bees usually live?

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Whitney Ottinger: I think the lifespan outside the nest I want to say two months is that about right Bethany?

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Bethany Harris: Yeah so usually it's kind of like a single season so they'll kind of emerge in spring and then they'll kind of overwinter it may be up to a year but that's about right you know kind of that single season from spring to spring is oftentimes what we're

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Becky Griffin: looking at. Okay. Well, thank you, Whitney, very much for your insight and your pro carpenter bee stance. And I'm going to go ahead and introduce our next speaker and then we'll get some more questions afterwards. Most of you probably already are familiar with Dr. Bethany Harris. She is the director for the Center for Urban Agriculture at UGA and she's on the Griffin campus.

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Becky Griffin: She earned her PhD in horticulture and her master's in entomology. And she has spent years on pollinator research before becoming the director of education at Callaway Gardens, where she was in charge of the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center. If you haven't been there, it's definitely worth a trip.

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Becky Griffin: Bethany knows a thing or two about flying insects and pollination.

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Becky Griffin: And in her current role, she works a lot with industry professionals, homeowners, county agents in areas,

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Becky Griffin: including sustainable food production, pollinator conservation, and urban entomology.

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Becky Griffin: So welcome, Bethany. The floor is yours.

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Bethany Harris: Thank you, Becky, for that. I'm super excited to be here and talk a little bit about one of my favorite topics, which is carpenter bees and native bees. So hopefully you can see my presentation. Everything's showing up okay there. Yes. Just to kind of tell you a little bit about myself, my master's and even my PhD work kind of focused on pollinators. So I'll be sharing a little bit about that today. But

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Bethany Harris: Today I'm really going to focus, I think Whitney did a great job setting the stage, talking about identification, you know, and really talking about field observations, what we're looking for when we're trying to identify these bees, particularly as we're counting them, hopefully in the next month or so with the pollinator census coming up.

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Bethany Harris: But I'm going to talk a little bit about how do we attract them to our landscapes and gardens? What are some of the plants that we can utilize to attract these generalist pollinators? So we'll spend a little time talking about that today. So before I dive in here, I know Whitney kind of talked about this a little bit, but I think carpenter bees oftentimes, you know, are misidentified. And of course, oftentimes they're confused with our bumblebees.

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Bethany Harris: She talked a little bit about shiny hiney, so we can kind of see that with the carpenter bees here in this photo. Typically, their abdomen is going to be smooth black appearance. They do typically have plumose hairs on their thorax, and you can see that here in those photos. And they're going to be utilizing these plumose hairs for collecting that pollen and taking them back to the nest.

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Bethany Harris: Another thing with carpenter bees too that's kind of very distinct as we're counting and particularly as we're getting ready for the pollinator census that you may notice is they tend to have this hovering and even this fast flight pattern. So you may notice particularly males tend to hover over flowers or even over the structures.

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Bethany Harris: that you might see, especially if you have wood structures in the landscape or in your neighborhood. So this is kind of a distinct flight pattern that you might see in this hovering kind of appearance. And then oftentimes, you know, they are looking for nesting sites.

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Bethany Harris: So, you know, we typically see them around decks, fences, eaves of house, so around these structural areas of our buildings. And so, we'll talk a little bit today, too, about what are some alternative, maybe nesting areas and nesting options for carpenter bees.

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Bethany Harris: as well. Again, typically bumblebees are going to have that fuzzy abdomen, so very distinctly different. Oftentimes I hear the question, are carpenter bees larger than bumblebees? And they can be in size, but really you're going to look for that shiny abdomen that's going to give it away.

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Bethany Harris: versus bumblebees having that kind of fuzzy abdomen. The other thing too is, you know, their nesting patterns and their nesting behaviors are so very different. So carpenter bees, again, they're typically looking for untreated wood, but they're going to nest directly in wood where bumblebees oftentimes nest directly in the ground. And,

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Bethany Harris: So you may notice this too as you're really watching, especially as you're counting and really start looking at bumblebees versus carpenter bees. You're going to see this kind of distinct behavior and this nesting behaviors that are really distinctly different as well. The other thing is, you know, there are males and female carpenter bees. And so most of you probably know this, but the males tend to have this kind of distinct patch. It's usually yellow or white in color on the face.

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Bethany Harris: where females have this all black face. So, you know, as you start counting bees, looking at them, you will be able to easily distinguish males from females. With many bees, in most bees, of course, males cannot sting. So same goes for the carpenter bees. The males are not going to be stinging. When we think about honey bees, for instance,

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Bethany Harris: Often times when we get stung by a honey bee, it's the worker bee. It's a female bee that we're getting stung by. And the same goes for carpenter bees here. The males don't have the ability to sting. Females are gonna be the ones that can sting. And often times the females are really scouting out, you know, and looking for nesting areas. So you may see them again around overhangs, porch, fence.

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Bethany Harris: They're gonna be the one that is actually being involved in this nesting

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Bethany Harris: behavior and they're gonna create these tunnel structures just like Whitney mentioned earlier.

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Bethany Harris: And I'll show you a little bit more about this. But again, typically it's the females that are out scouting for these nesting areas.

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Bethany Harris: So Whitney kind of talked and showed you some pictures of these cavities, but really, you know, typically the female is going out. She's going to tunnel into the wood and she's creating what we call nesting galleries oftentimes. So these are some great examples of kind of damage that you might see. You know, if you start looking at maybe untreated wood where you've had carpenter bees nesting, you know, if you were to look directly inside, you would see these galleries.

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Bethany Harris: Typically within these galleries, the female is actually going to lay her eggs. She's going to kind of provision that nest with a pollen ball. So as she's collecting that pollen, she's going to provision the nest with that pollen.

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Bethany Harris: The larvae are going to actually feed directly on that pollen and develop inside these galleries that you see there. And they're going to complete their whole life cycle in this untreated wood that you see there. And typically what happens is, you know, the adults will actually emerge in the spring, but they kind of lay in wait if you can imagine that. So they go through this egg, larvae,

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Bethany Harris: They're going to be in these tunnels or galleries during our winter months.

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Bethany Harris: And again, very less active. You won't typically when you think about seeing carpenter bees, oftentimes spring and summer probably come to mind.

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Bethany Harris: This is when they're most active. And this is typically when the adults do emerge.

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Bethany Harris: This is what a nest would look like. So if you were to, you know, look at that untreated wood that maybe you have around where you know you have carpenter bee nest and you were to look at them, particularly during this life cycle stage, what you're seeing here is up here at the left.

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Bethany Harris: So this is the food source for the larva. The white little grub that you see on top of that pollen ball there is actually the larva. So it's directly feeding on this pollen. And this pollen serves as a protein source.

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Bethany Harris: And then, you know, once the larvae develop, they're gonna pupate. And you can actually see the pupal stage down at the right corner of this photo there. Those are the pupa. And then again, those adults are gonna come out in the spring and they're gonna emerge. So again, this is kind of what the life cycle looks like, you know, if you were to see this, which is pretty impressive. I mean, it's really amazing just the work that they do and how they complete that life cycle within the single season as well.

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Bethany Harris: So, you know, I know Whitney talked about some alternatives and some options when it comes to, and one of the questions we always get is, you know, how do I manage carpenter bees? You know, they're so important for pollination. I want them around. But what are some alternatives when it comes to nesting? And so there are, you know, commercially available nesting boxes that are available.

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Bethany Harris: as well as DIY nesting boxes that can be built. These can work really well. I know Whitney mentioned you know these work for smaller bees maybe not for larger bees and I think one of the things that you have to think about when you're either purchasing these or if you're thinking about making your own is for carpenter bees they need a large size entrance hole so it's really important. In fact NC State recommends about a half inch.

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Bethany Harris: If you're going to create these boxes yourself. So this is really important if you think about creating these nesting boxes to ensure that you have the right size hole for nesting as well. The other thing this can do is, you know, this can hopefully encourage nesting away from those structural areas. So it's important, you know, when you're placing these nesting boxes that you think about, you know,

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Bethany Harris: and really discouraging these carpenter bees away from maybe your structures or homes or buildings and placing these in areas away from that. But this can be really one way to kind of provide them an overwintering site and to support

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Bethany Harris: pollinator conservation long-term. So you may think about utilizing these nesting boxes and you know if you're making them yourself really thinking about that half-inch entrance hole and creating these that will work best for carpenter bees as well.

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Bethany Harris: Here's another option. This is again kind of a DIY nesting box that you see here in this photo. And what they've done is they've utilized these untreated softwood blocks. So things like pine, softwood is what you would typically want to utilize. And you know, you would create the entrance holes again. That half inch is pretty commonly utilized.

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Bethany Harris: So this is one way that you can kind of create a nesting site or nesting area. Another option is, you know, leaving dead wood logs in naturalized areas. This can be a way to maybe encourage nesting outside of your structures or buildings or around that area. And it's really important not only to place these nesting materials or place these alternative nesting boxes.

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Bethany Harris: away from your structures or your home, but also to think about where do you place them. Typically we want them in a sunny location, but we do not want to place them where they're getting full sun all day. It can really heat up in these nesting boxes. So thinking about placing this in an area, again, away from your structures, away from your home, but that is going to get morning sun and then afternoon shade.

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Bethany Harris: So thinking about that as well. And really thinking about how do I create this perfect pollinator habitat or these habitat zones long-term. And I'll talk about a little later on some ways that this can be done. But this is just one option for thinking about alternative nesting habitats.

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Bethany Harris: The other thing too is, you know, oftentimes we live in a society that's kind of like set it and forget it. And I think one of the things that's really important to think about is not only the placement of these, we talked about placing them away from structures, but it's important to maintain these long-term. So,

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Bethany Harris: You know each season you'll need to go in and actually inspect the nesting box. Particularly even if you make your own or buy commercially available. And you may need to replace these over time. These can harbor pathogens long term so it's really important to inspect, replace,

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Bethany Harris: these nesting materials as they become weathered. And then, you know, the other thing too is if you have them still going to your structures and you feel like, "Hey, I've put up these nesting box options, but I'm still seeing them continuously visit, you know, my structural areas where I have exposed wood."

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Bethany Harris: It's going to be really important, like Whitney said, to really seal that wood, you know, paint that wood. That's going to be your best bet in hoping to discourage nesting in those areas and hopefully they will nest, you know, directly in those boxes or those alternative

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Bethany Harris: that you've provided. And then monitoring excess nesting activity. Early in the spring, when those adults emerge, they're coming out looking for pollen and they're going to start nesting. So it's important if you're building these boxes,

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Bethany Harris: to monitor and see, you know, are the boxes filling up? Am I having excess nesting activity? So these are things you want to watch out for. And it can be really fun. You know, you can get students involved in looking at this, but I think this is something to monitor, particularly in the spring, as these bees are starting to nest and, you know, they're starting to provision their nest and looking for nesting sites. So this is something to just to watch out for as well.

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Bethany Harris: So I know Whitney kind of touched on buzz pollination, but I want to talk a little bit about it. I think it's so important to understand really how buzz pollination works. And then this is really essential when you start thinking about selecting plants to attract pollinators and particularly carpenter bees because they do buzz pollination.

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Bethany Harris: Two groups that do buzz pollination are carpenter bees and bumblebees.

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Bethany Harris: So it's typically our larger size bees that are going to do this phenomenon.

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Bethany Harris: And the way this works is typically, you know, there are certain flowers that actually trap pollen inside these tube like anthers.

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Bethany Harris: Things like tomatoes, for instance. If you can imagine the tomato flower, pollen gets trapped in that flower fairly easily. And so these large bees, like carpenter bees or bumblebees, oftentimes they can't enter the flower directly, right? And so there's got to be a way that they actually are able to loosen and have access to that pollen. And so what they'll do is they'll cling to the flower, and you may have seen this before and not realize that you've even seen it, but,

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Bethany Harris: And then they'll shake that pollen loose utilizing the vibrations. And so there are several of our crops, our cash crops that we might be growing or our garden crops that we might be growing this season. And actually just in the last few weeks, I've had carpenter bees in my garden.

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Bethany Harris: And I've seen this buzz pollination on my tomatoes and on my eggplant. So those are a couple crops. Blueberries, if you have those in your garden too, you might see this same behavior. And this is really what buzz pollination is. And it's just a way for that large bee that cannot get in the flower directly to shake that pollen and collect that pollen directly.

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Bethany Harris: There's been some research about buzz pollination. In fact, DeLuca et al. did a lot of work looking at carpenter bees and trying to understand this vibration a little more, trying to understand, you know, how, what goes on and, you know, how is the bee actually able to access and release that pollen. And so, they certainly,

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Bethany Harris: They did a lot of work in this area, but they looked at vibration frequency of carpenter bees, as well as force of that bee in order to get production of pollen. And then looked at specifically how these vibrations, how they're utilizing that mechanism to actually release the pollen. And so it was pretty interesting work that they did, but they essentially found that in carpenter bees, their average buzzing frequency is about 130 hertz.

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Bethany Harris: And the carpenter bees in particular generate forces up to 80 times their body weight in order for this pollen to be released. So pretty incredible, you know, when you start looking at buzz pollination and really trying to understand it. And what they found, you know,

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Bethany Harris: just looking at carpenter bees, but again, bubble bees can have the same, do the same approach is that these vibrations actually help them maximize pollen release. So by vibrating, holding onto that flower, they were able to maximize that release efficiency. And so you can see here in this photo, this is a carpenter bee, but if you look very closely, you'll see grains of pollen that are on this bee. And you can see there, of course, the grains of pollen are attached to those plumose hairs.

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Bethany Harris: on the thorax as well as on the legs, and also underneath the abdomen as well. And so after they complete this buzz pollination, they're going to collect that pollen, and they're going to carry it. The female is going to carry this directly back to the nest to feed the larva. She may feed on some of this as well because it's a protein source, but oftentimes they're carrying this directly back to the nest to feed their young.

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Bethany Harris: So kind of from this study, really what they found is that when they started looking at the carpenter bee and really kind of understanding these mechanisms for buzz pollination, they found that they were pretty highly effective pollinators and that this mechanism really helped.

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Bethany Harris: to improve pollen release from the flowers they were visiting. But also, they were able to produce these kind of strong floral vibrations. And long-term, this could be utilized on certain crops like tomatoes or I've mentioned eggplant blueberries before, but even peppers.

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Bethany Harris: to support crop pollination and then also to support pollination of some of our native plant species as well. So it was really incredible to kind of understand this mechanism and then just to see how it impacts crop pollination and production long term.

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Bethany Harris: So I know we got some questions about the life cycle, and I kind of wanted to dive into this a little bit more, because I think it's really important to understand the life cycle as you're thinking about maybe creating the perfect carpenter bee habitat and planting those floral resources.

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Bethany Harris: And so what typically happens is, you know, in the spring, we have adult bees that actually emerge. You know, they've overwintered in those wood structures. They're going to emerge. And this is oftentimes when you see a lot of activity in the spring. If you think about seeing carpenter bees, you've probably seen them

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Bethany Harris: pretty heavily in the spring. Typically in the spring, those adults are going to mate.

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Bethany Harris: And then one of the things that you'll really notice is in the spring, there's a lot of activity with carpenter bees foraging.

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Bethany Harris: So you may see them in your garden more. You might see them visiting some of those crops like we talked about, tomatoes.

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Bethany Harris: blueberries, blueberries, blueberries, blueberries, blueberries, blueberries, eggplants. And what they're doing is they're collecting that pollen and they're going to take it directly back to the nest. So this is oftentimes when nesting starts to occur is in the spring. You might also see them near your wood structures. And this is because they're looking for a nesting site and they're going to ultimately develop that nesting site and then start provisioning that nest. And so what they'll do is they're going to carry that pollen back. They're going to form these pollen balls.

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Bethany Harris: that you might see. And then they're going to lay their eggs directly on the pollen balls. And so those eggs will merge. Typically the larva is going to feed on that pollen. It's a protein source for the larva. The larva is going to grow and develop. And then it's going to pupate. And this typically occurs, you know, where the larva is developing and growing and then pupating, typically in the summer season.

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Bethany Harris: So bees are still active. You might still see these carpenter bees in the garden.

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Bethany Harris: But again, this is typically when they're starting to kind of complete that life cycle.

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Bethany Harris: And then usually towards the end of summer or as we get into maybe early fall, these adult bees are going to emerge.

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Bethany Harris: They're going to pupate, then they're going to emerge as adults.

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Bethany Harris: And this is where what we call the next generation takes flight. So I know there was a question earlier about like how long do they live? And typically it's kind of a single season that you might see or you might say, okay, it's spring through summer. So it can be maybe up to a six month period, but you can see spring and summer is typically where this life cycle.

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Bethany Harris: They go through the complete life cycle. They're gonna emerge. This new generation takes flight. And then oftentimes in the gardens, we see carpenter bees a lot in the fall. And you may say, "This is really strange that I'm seeing them in the fall." But typically what they're doing is they are foraging. They're looking for nectar sources. They're looking for pollen.

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Bethany Harris: And they're getting ready to overwinter. So we're about to go into the winter season where it's cold. They're going to sit in the nest for months. So they need food source, right? And so they're going to be out foraging looking for pollen nectar. And then they are going to be hibernating, you know, or sitting in that nesting overwintering through the winter. And then typically when we get back to spring, the adult bees emerge again.

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Bethany Harris: So this is kind of the life cycle of the carpenter bee and this can really help us as we're selecting plant material and floral resources to attract these guys in the landscape and to provide them these provisioning resources. So I kind of want to switch gears and talk just a little bit about some work that we did at UGA.

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Bethany Harris: on annual and perennial wildflowers. And we really wanted to look at wildflowers because as you go into the garden centers, especially as you went into the garden centers this spring, but as you even enter the summer, one of the things that you'll see is these native wildflower mixes that are often sold. And you may wonder, you know, do they work? Are they a really great source for pollinators, you know? And so there were a lot of questions coming to us from landowners and homeowners about

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Bethany Harris: Do these plants establish well? Are they attractive to pollinators? And so we really wanted to look at that. So just to kind of tell you a little bit about what we did is we selected 32 different species of wildflowers. And this was based on them being native either to Georgia or to the southeastern United States. So we selected them. We started them from seed in the greenhouse here on the UGA Griffin campus.

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Bethany Harris: And then we actually planted them, you know, transplanted them directly into the field. So you can see here in this first photo, they were planted in May and this was in 2017. And then, you know, moved to the field and then we evaluated them over time. So these are photos at the bottom here in October. So this was at the end of the growing season. And you can see just in one season,

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Bethany Harris: how large these plants grew. We not only evaluated them for pollinator activity, and I'll share more of that, but we also evaluated them for how well they grew in southeastern climates. We have different climatic conditions here, and we also looked to see about pest pressure as well. That was the other thing that we looked at.

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Bethany Harris: I wanted to show you this is these were the first best first year bloomers and so I think when we're thinking about attracting pollinators but particularly carpenter bees going back to kind of thinking about their life cycle and how they complete that those generations it's important that we have floral resources.

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Bethany Harris: throughout the season. We need floral resources in spring. We need floral resources in summer. And then obviously we talked a little bit about into fall and how these adult carpenter bees are going to be looking for kind of the last resources for the season. And so for us, it was really important for us to evaluate how these plants grew, but also which ones were first year bloomers.

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Bethany Harris: All of these are perennial. And as we know, and as many of you know, perennials can take several years to establish. And sometimes they take several years to flower as well. And so it was important just to assess this. And so these were kind of our top bloomers. You'll see butterfly milkweed on the list, a great bloomer. Several of our coreopsis species, lanceleaf tickseed and golden tickseed are on the list.

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Bethany Harris: or Boneset or Feverwort, Yellow Sneezeweed, Blue Cardinal Flower, Seedbox, Lemon Mint, Black-Eyed Susan, which is another one of my favorites, Sage, Scarlet Sage, which is a native sage that we have here, and then Frost Aster and New England Aster were on the list, and I want to bring your attention to these two plants because what we saw is they tend to bloom late in the season.

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Bethany Harris: So typically August to October. So when we're running out of flora resources, maybe in the landscape, these two served as that kind of late fall season resource. And so this was really important from the research that we found. We also found species that grew well. You know, they produce maybe leaves or stems, but they may produce very little flowers or no flowers. Mountain mint is one of my absolute favorites, but again, you know, it's perennial. It may take it

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Bethany Harris: take several years for it to establish. So again, if you're looking for something that's going to bloom early on, especially if you're just establishing a pollinator garden, these are great to add in, but they may not provide you that first year of bloom that you're looking for. Hoary Skullcap and Ohio Spiderwort, another one of my favorites, but again, just being patient with them because they are perennial and they take several years before they establish and flower.

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Bethany Harris: And then we had several plants that, again, the first year were primarily foliage. And you can see those here at the bottom, but bear spud, eastern grape, beard tongue, and green-headed coneflower were just a couple. And so we're, this study, a lot of this work is still going on, both at our Griffin campus and our Tifton campus, and looking at, you know, not only these species, but they've added some others in and just evaluating on how well they grow and how attracted they are to pollinators over time.

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Bethany Harris: I do have a funny story about green-headed coneflower. This was actually a really cool plant and so I was super excited the first year because it finally flowered. And you can see this photo here on the left. And so I went out and I was evaluating, you know, pollinator activity on this plant and I came back the next day and it looked like the picture at the top.

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Bethany Harris: And that was the other thing that we looked at. Not just how well these plants grew in southeastern environments, but you know, oftentimes for landowners, they do have, you know, wildlife, maybe some challenges when it comes to wildlife. And we have deer pressure. And so this was a plant that was really, it was really important that we learned, you know, that, you know, and it was a big challenge for us because we were wanting blooms. And of course, the deer would come in and feed directly.

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Bethany Harris: on the tissue there. So just something to think about too as you're selecting plants for pollinators as well. We also had plants that just didn't grow well and little bluestem on the list, spike gayfeather. And again, this was just the first year, so this is something to keep in mind.

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Bethany Harris: and then several of the native milkweeds, Asclepias verticillata and

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Bethany Harris: incarnata, and standing cypress. This was just the single year, so I know they're kind of continuing

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Bethany Harris: this study, and actually they're continuing this study over a 10-year period. But you can see here on this

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Bethany Harris: photo, this is the Asclepias verticillata, and we got a lot of milkweed aphids, so it stunted growth, and it affected bloom on this particular

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Bethany Harris: their plants. So not to say this happens, I actually grow verticillata at home and it does really well, but this was just that first year data, kind of what we saw. So kind of general observations that we took from this, and we looked at all types of bees, but particularly kind of reporting on carpenter bees and what we saw these carpenter bees being attracted to. And so we found that plants in the Asteraceae family, things like Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, Helenium,

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Bethany Harris: Those asters that we talked about like frost aster, New England aster, they were great for attracting these carpenter bees and these larger bees. And then plants in the mint family, so in the Lamiaceae family, things like salvias for instance, Scutellarias, Lobelias, or other just primary attractors for these larger bee species as well.

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Bethany Harris: So another study that I was able to work on during my time as a master's student was looking at crepe myrtles. We know that crepe myrtles are a southern favorite in the landscape. They're often utilized and there are so many cultivars on the market. And so oftentimes it can be, you know, challenging as we're trying to decide what cultivar to plant or select. It's really important to think about, you know,

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Bethany Harris: We know these plants are attractive to pollinators, but maybe what would be the best or most attractive cultivar? And so this is really what we did is we wanted to look at, you know, the common cultivars that you see on the market that are commercially available and then see how attractive they were to bees.

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Bethany Harris: And so we looked at different types of bees. Carpenter bees were one of our groups. Bumble bees, honey bees, and some of our small native bees as well. And what we found is, you know, when we looked at all bees across the board, it seemed that Seminole and Victor, two cultivars, again, that are commercially available, were the ones that were kind of primary attractors.

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Bethany Harris: Seminole is pink in color, and it gets medium height. So it's kind of this medium size. And then we also looked at pest resistance too, because that can be a big challenge with crepe myrtles. We know Japanese beetle can be challenging if you grow them at home or in the landscape. So the JB that you see there is Japanese beetle. Altica beetle is another leaf beetle that feeds directly on the leaves. Again, they can be really challenging. Crepe myrtle aphid and then powdery mildew.

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Bethany Harris: And so you can see we looked at susceptibility and Seminole was moderately susceptible to these things but again great pollinator attractor. And then Victor was probably one of the ones that I was most surprised about. It's a dwarf variety so it stays smaller so if you're looking for a crepe myrtle that's going to stay

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Bethany Harris: It's a little smaller in size. It's a great one. Red in color. And then it was resistant to crepe myrtle aphid and powdery mildew. It was moderately susceptible to Japanese beetle and Altica beetle, but another really great selection. And again, for pollinator traction, both of these were kind of the top tier.

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Bethany Harris: We also were wondering, you know, the size of the shrub. You know, crepe myrtles can get large. There's different varieties that may stay more like a small shrub or a medium shrub or, you know, get large, become a large shrub or even a small tree. And so we had wondered, does size affect the size of the shrub?

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Bethany Harris: numbers of bees that we would see visiting. And so we looked at this for total bees, which would be any bee that visited from a honey bee to a carpenter bee to a bumblebee to some of those small native bees. And we looked at this for honey bees as well as bumblebees and carpenter bees and then even those small native bees.

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Bethany Harris: And kind of what we saw, and you see this here in these photos, but what we found is small shrubs were tended to be preferred. We saw more total bees on small shrubs than the other sizes, medium or large shrubs or small trees. Kind of that same trend is what we saw for honeybees. So you can see they tended to prefer small shrubs. We had more visitation by honeybees to small shrubs than the other size shrubs.

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Bethany Harris: As well as those native bees, we kind of saw the same trend there. So things like sweat bees, for instance, tended to prefer the small shrub size. But when we started looking at the larger bees, so things like bumblebees and carpenter bees, bumblebees definitely had this kind of distinct preference. We saw, you know, more bumblebees on this medium-sized shrub when compared to other shrub sizes or even that tree. And then when you look at carpenter bees, you can see the numbers were a little bit less compared to the other groups.

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Bethany Harris: But they didn't really have this preference. So they visited small shrubs, they visited large shrubs and medium shrubs. And so that was pretty interesting to see because oftentimes I think we think, you know, plant size, I've got to have large plants for, you know, large bees. But it was really interesting with the carpenter bees that we just didn't see this distinct preference, which is really interesting.

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Bethany Harris: So when we're thinking about creating this pollinator garden, and really a pollinator garden that's going to attract the carpenter bees, I think it's really important to think about nectar year-round. We talked about those overlapping bloom times and thinking about that life cycle again of the carpenter bee, but we want nectar and pollen sources, you know, in early spring, into summer, and then into fall before they overwinter. We also want these vertical vegetation, like

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Bethany Harris: So we want trees and shrubs, but we also want herbaceous plants and low-growing vines and ground covers. So thinking about that, because this is really what helps us, you know, provide that complete habitat. It's also important to think about shelter sites. We talked a little bit about some alternative

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Bethany Harris: shelters or these DIY nesting boxes. But thinking about creating this vertical vegetation layers and providing these shelters is essential. And then providing them a space not only to forage for food, but also to take up moisture, right? And providing moisture. So this is a carpenter bee here in this photo. What you don't see, this is actually in one of my field plots,

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Bethany Harris: And what you don't see is there is a torrential downpour coming down. And this carpenter bee is utilizing this flower as a shelter site. So it can be really simple. It doesn't have to be complicated when we think about kind of creating this complete habitat for our carpenter bees.

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Bethany Harris: I get a lot of questions oftentimes of, you know, should I select native plants only or non-natives? And so in several of the studies, I've looked at natives, but I've also looked at non-natives. And so what I would recommend is, you know, when you're selecting plants,

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Bethany Harris: Select Natives where you can, but if you have to select non-native exotics, it's important that you select plant material that's not invasive. So these well-behaved non-native exotics, and there's several, you know, on the market. I'll talk here in a minute about just a few that are out there, but, you know, a combination of these plants work really well, but, you know, again, if you're selecting non-native, you want them to be well-behaved. You don't want them to be invasive.

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Bethany Harris: So it's important to check that before planting as well.

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Bethany Harris: You know, what does a carpenter bee after?

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Bethany Harris: When you see them out foraging in the garden or they're in the landscape,

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Bethany Harris: and again, when you're thinking about putting in a pollinator garden,

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Bethany Harris: it's really about providing them these kind of primary food sources.

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Bethany Harris: So if you think about we talked a little bit about pollen and how they're taking it back to the nest how it serves as a source of protein not only for the adult bee but also for the larvae. But nectar is just important. You know this is going to be kind of an energy source for these bees as they're moving from flower to flower they're going to take up that nectar and they're going to utilize it to supply energy as they move about.

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Bethany Harris: When it comes to selecting nectar feeding plants, these are just a couple other recommendations. Whitney mentioned Passionflower, which is a great one to add in. It's also a host plant for our Gulf fritillary butterflies, so it's kind of a two-for-one plant.

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Bethany Harris: But blueberries are a great option. Azaleas. And then salvias. They like the tubular shaped flowers. And I'll talk a little bit about that here in a second. But, you know, thinking about these rich sources of nectar as you're adding in plant material. Oftentimes these carpenter bees, because they're large bodied, they need these larger flowers.

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Bethany Harris: thinking about creating a landing pad for them as they're coming in. But oftentimes, they're going to have these floral preferences because they're looking for the richest source of nectar as they're visiting the garden or the landscape. Also, when it comes to pollen, again, they're looking for these kind of open blooms, these landing pads, these large flowers.

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Bethany Harris: Also adding in buzz pollinated flowers, things like the tomatoes that we talked about that have this poricidal anthers are going to be really important. And again, you know, as they're foraging, they're going to the richest source of pollen. So they're looking for those flowers that are rich in pollen, but they're going to need it not only for themselves as a protein source, but they're going to again, take it back to that nest.

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Bethany Harris: and store that pollen as well. So that's going to be important to think about too as you're selecting plant material. And then there was one study that really looked again and kind of looked at the behavior patterns of these carpenter bees as they were visiting the flowers. And what they found is carpenter bees are great generalist pollinators. You know, they will visit and they will source from a wide range of flowering plants.

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Bethany Harris: And so again, you know, we have specialist pollinators, but carpenter bees can serve as that generalist pollinator. And I think that's what makes them such an important piece to pollination is just their ability to visit a wide variety of flowering plants. The other thing they looked at in the study, which is pretty interesting, is they looked at, you know, when are we seeing them out and about? When are we seeing them foraging? And so,

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Bethany Harris: If you notice and kind of watch the carpenter bees, one of the things that you might notice is you see them early in the morning. Hours, or you know, typically they're going to be early in the morning and you know, they're not going to be visiting flowers maybe after lunchtime. So they're going to, they're looking for kind of the richest sources of nectar and pollen when they're out.

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Bethany Harris: those that are high in nectar and pollen rewards. And then there are some, kind of one of the key characteristics they noticed about carpenter bees is they're what we call nectar robbers. So they will pierce the tubular flowers that they cannot get in to collect pollen and nectar. And when they do this, you know, they cut a hole directly in the base of that flower to take up and access that nectar.

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Bethany Harris: So that was kind of another maybe key characteristics that you see with these larger bees like carpenter bees and bumblebees. One thing that they found from the study is again, there are valuable native pollinators because they do visit a wide range of crops and native plants. And then they looked at their nesting habits too in the study. And one thing that they found is, you know, it's really important to maintain these alternative nesting sites. So providing them dead wood or untreated

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Bethany Harris: timber or lumber can really help in preserving nesting habitat and their populations long term.

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Bethany Harris: So, you know, looking at their foraging habitats and as you're out counting, thinking about the census coming up, you're most likely to see these carpenter bees.

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Bethany Harris: typically early in the morning through midday. And they're going to be most active on warm sunny days. So you know when you're thinking about counting the ideal time is selecting a warm sunny day and going out there you know early morning to midday. Oftentimes why they're foraging during this time is because the sources of nectar and pollen are the freshest. So they're looking for the freshest sources of nectar and pollen and this is where they are they're going to. And typically you know they like cooler temperatures. It's

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Bethany Harris: You may not see them as active as we get into the heat of the day. They prefer cooler temperatures as they're foraging as well. So I talked a little bit about nectar robbing, but this is exactly what happens. These pictures,

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Bethany Harris: show this. And again, other bees outside of carpenter bees can do this, but what they will do is they're going to find the base of that tubular shaped flower. Salvias are a great example of them doing this. You know, again, you have that small tubular shaped flower. The bee can't get directly in the flower, so they're going to utilize their proboscis, and they're going to cut a hole.

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Bethany Harris: into that base of that flower, and that's where they're gonna utilize that. They've stuck their proboscis in, and they're gonna take up nectar without even entering the flower. So pay attention to your tubular shaped flowers because this may have happened and you may not know, and you can actually look at these flowers and you'll see that hole that they cut out. So it's pretty interesting strategy that they use.

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Bethany Harris: And then, you know, as we're creating a habitat, I think the other thing we want to think about is how do we provide them sources of moisture? So it can be as simple as flagstones that you leave out that collect water. You can select plants that have these bowl shaped, you know, features like heuchera, for instance, which is a picture there at the top. This is a foliage plant that has this kind of cup shape.

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Bethany Harris: plant and leaf shape that can be utilized. You can leave bare patches of soil for them to take up moisture or you can leave these kind of bee but puddling areas that can be a little bit more ornate and utilized as well.

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Bethany Harris: We also want to think again about, we talked about those nesting boxes, but thinking about where is the overwintering site going to be. So it can be as simple as logs that you have stacked up where they can nest directly. It can be an alternative nesting box, but thinking about this,

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Bethany Harris: is essential to creating the perfect habitat.

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Bethany Harris: And then some other things that we can do is we can provide these overgrown areas of stumps.

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Bethany Harris: Again, thinking about their size, you know, logs or even brush piles that have larger pieces of wood where they can directly nest in.

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Bethany Harris: We may leave piles of unraped fallen leaves on the ground. Again, this serves as just this overwintering site for the bees directly. So thinking about that. And it can be, you know, simple like old log piles like you see here in this photo, or it can be rock wall crevices, which again is just going to provide that overwintering or sheltering site for some of our insects. I really like the way they did this here because

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Bethany Harris: They use an annual coleus, which is a great pollinator plant, you know, in their rock wall as well. And I think the other thing that's so important is creating these resting areas, you know, these sunny resting areas. So if you go out and you see carpenter bees or bumblebees and it's early in the morning and you see them kind of attached to a plant, maybe they're not moving, this is because they're typically warming them

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Bethany Harris: themselves.

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Bethany Harris: You know insects are cold blooded.

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Bethany Harris: They require you know heat and so one thing that's important is to provide them this resting area where they can take up that sun.

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Bethany Harris: It can be a large boulder or flagstone.

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Bethany Harris: It can be plant material that they're able to rest on and warm themselves as well.

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Bethany Harris: These are pictures of the Atlanta BeltLine here. And I think this is a great example of the perfect pollinator habitat. You see bare patches of soil there. You see these vertical vegetation layers that we talked about. You know, you've got ground covers and herbaceous plants.

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Bethany Harris: as well as trees and shrubs. You've got flowering plants that are sources of nectar and pollen. So great example here. So it doesn't have to be always be aesthetically pleasing to you and I think that's important to remember. This is another great space at Atlanta BeltLine and again it looks like maybe an overgrown area but when you start looking you can easily see those vertical vegetation layers that we've seen.

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Bethany Harris: we talked about, right? And then don't forget your woodies too. I know we focused a lot on herbaceous plants and we talked a little bit about crepe myrtles, but just a couple woodies that are really great when it comes to carpenter bees and larger bees. Vitex is a great one. It typically blooms all summer long, so you get this kind of long bloom time for Vitex.

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Bethany Harris: This is one that was bred here at UGA. It's called the Daytona Heat Series. And so you can see, think about NASCAR, all of them are named after race car drivers. We've got Dale White, Danica Pink, and Petty Blue. But we did a lot of work on this plant and looking at those larger bees. And what we found is they had these large panicles. They're a great landing spot for these larger bees, like carpenter bees. And we saw a lot of visitation, particularly from carpenter bees, bumblebees as well.

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Bethany Harris: A couple others, sweet shrub is great. And then, you know, if you're looking for a native shrub, American Beautyberry is a great one as well. It's great for wildlife. It produces berries, but it's also great for these planators as well. Japanese Pieris, if you look at the flowers of this, they're kind of bell-shaped and they might almost look similar to a blueberry flower. So this is another one that attracts

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Bethany Harris: It also attracts other insects. And you can see moths here in this photo too. So other pollinators it may bring in as well. And then Japanese Aralia. This is a bumblebee here in this photo in the left. But you see how large that flower is. And so it's important again to select these.

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Bethany Harris: these open blooms to think about the size of the flower. They need this large landing pad, particularly for bumblebees and carpenter bees. So this is a really good choice as well. And then kind of to wrap up here, because I know I'm getting to the end of time, but I just wanted to kind of talk a little bit about how you can put what we learned, you know, what we talked about today, maybe what you learned today into practice. And so,

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Bethany Harris: The pollinator census is coming up August 21st and 22nd. We hope that you'll be a part of it. And there's this really great resource on the website there for the census. This insect counting and identification guide. And so it's simple to be a part of it. Many of you have probably already counted before. But you know, find a friend this year and teach them about the census and how they can be involved. And again, you know, you're picking one flowering plant.

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Bethany Harris: And typically you're gonna stand there at that plant and you're gonna count for 15 minutes. And one of the things to note is you want to count each landing event. So if that carpenter bee visits once and then it comes back, you're gonna count it multiple times. And we've got this nice count sheet as well as other resources, but this can be really helpful if you're teaching people how to count.

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Bethany Harris: or if you're teaching them about pollinators, this count guide's great. Also the count sheet that you see here in this photo is online as well. And you'll see one of the primary categories that you'll be counting are carpenter bees, right? So they're on the list. You'll see other bees like bumblebees, honeybees, small bees, and then some of our other pollinators like wasp, flies, butterflies, and moths. And then there's an other insect category where you can put things like beetles or dragonflies for instance.

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Bethany Harris: And so again, it's super easy to do. And I think this is really helpful as beginners are maybe starting to count. And just a couple things that I found is, you know, a lot of times, again, people have this misidentification when it comes to carpenter bees and bumblebees.

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Bethany Harris: So if you take anything away today, carpenter bees have the shiny hiney and bumblebees have this fuzzy fanny. And then again, you can look at their nesting behaviors. Carpenter bees are going to be solitary and they typically nest in wood. Bumblebees are going to live in small colonies. So typically they're not solitary and they typically nest in the ground.

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Bethany Harris: And then, you know, focus on their flight patterns too, and how they move about the plants as well. And kind of the last thing that I found that works really great is using your phone camera. So as you're doing this, keep your phone out because, you know, it can really help you to magnify the insect, but it also can help when it comes to insect identification. And it can be a way of record keeping too. And so this can be really helpful as well. You know, focus,

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Bethany Harris: directly on the plant and those landings. And then again, I think utilizing the materials that are on the pollinator census website can really make observations easier, especially as people are diving into the census for the first time. And so,

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Bethany Harris: Kind of the last thing is there are some great resources out there. Obviously check out the Great Southeast Pollinator Census site. But if you've never heard of Southern SARE, SARE stands for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. And so there is a great website here that provides

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Bethany Harris: a lot of different publication resources that are free to the public.

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Bethany Harris: They have publications on building soils and weed management.

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Bethany Harris: And there's a great one on managing alternative pollinators.

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Bethany Harris: So this can be really helpful, you know, for home gardeners, but also if you're thinking about starting your own farm or your growing space, these can be great.

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Bethany Harris: And again, they're free to you, so you can download them as PDFs.

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Bethany Harris: and can be a really great asset as you are gardening or farming. And so with that, I'm going to stop here and I'll be happy to take any questions that you might have.

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Becky Griffin: All right. Thank you, Bethany. That was great. What a lot of information. I so appreciate the fact that you have that background in horticulture and entomology.

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Becky Griffin: So you could kind of bring those things together. And yes, we will be seeing lots of carpenter bees this August during the census. So I've been monitoring our questions and you answered a lot of them as you went through your presentation. I'm going to ask you to unshare your presentation and

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Becky Griffin: Let's see.

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Becky Griffin: So one of the questions that we've gotten a couple times are,

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Becky Griffin: explain how the males overwinter.

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Bethany Harris: Yeah, so great question.

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Bethany Harris: So oftentimes what happens with the males is, you know, they can,

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Bethany Harris: they can directly nest as well, you know, and overwinter in the nest.

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Bethany Harris: But oftentimes what will usually happen is those males don't make it through the winter.

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Bethany Harris: So it's typically the females that are nesting.

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Bethany Harris: They have a very short lifespan. So most of the time, you know, they're not, they may not overwinter or they're going to nest, but typically they have a shorter lifespan than the females, if that answers your question there. Very good. Another thing that we've gotten a couple times is when we talk about the life cycle and the female laying her eggs in these chambers, how did the bees get out of the chambers? That's what people want to know.

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Bethany Harris: Yeah, that's a great question. So, you know, as they're kind of growing in that chamber, you know, they're feeding. So the larva is becoming larger and larger, right? And feeding. And then they're going to pupate. And typically they, the way they lay their nest, you know, and they kind of provision that chamber.

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Bethany Harris: They're feeding and they're growing at the same time. So, you know, as they're growing feeding, they get to the pupil stage. They're almost kind of to the end of that chamber. They bore that chamber so well that they're kind of moving out and can get out of it very quickly. And then once they pupate and become adults, you know, they're going to be able to directly fly out.

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Becky Griffin: While we're talking, I'm going to go ahead and launch our post-webinar questions for people to look at while we're talking. Another question we had is several of our listeners talked about how they had seen carpenter bees actually bore into treated landscape timbers. Does that hurt them because of what's used on the treated wood?

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Bethany Harris: Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I don't know that there's been any research done on that. You know, of course, typically we don't oftentimes see them. In fact, we encourage people if they're trying to keep them away from structures to use treated wood and to paint, right, to seal. But I'm not aware, you know, of any work in that, and I don't know

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Becky Griffin: Exactly. You know, if that's the case, I would assume potentially. But yeah, I'm not completely sure. I have seen that as well and have wondered that as well. So. Right. Another question that several people ask are the correct way to manage the artificial bee homes. So we don't want bacteria, predators. So.

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Bethany Harris: I think you did cover it during your presentation but could you just cover that one more time we want to be safe for our carpenter bees so what's the best way to handle those? Yes that's a great question and I know we see this with other native bees too as we put up boxes and so what I like to do is I like to create my own I kind of do DIY and oftentimes I'll come in every season and kind of work

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Bethany Harris: So you want them to get through that overwintering.

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Bethany Harris: We want to put them up maybe April, thinking about them starting to nest and everything.

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Bethany Harris: We want them to get through that season and we want them to emerge, but in that down season, maybe before we get into

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Bethany Harris: Just before early spring or right into early spring, it's really important to inspect them. And then oftentimes, you know, you're probably going to need to replace them. You may even need to replace them yearly depending on the damage and the pathogens. And I think just managing and watching and inspecting for that is really important. But again, that's where DIY is so important too and can be a really good strategy because, you know, those commercially available boxes can get pretty expensive quick. So,

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Becky Griffin: Right. My mom used to buy those for me and they would have huge holes. And I'm like, I don't know what's going in there, but thanks mom. Yeah, exactly. And I manage mine like you do. If I use any of those nesting boxes a year and when they're empty, I will get rid of them and put up something fresh. And as you mentioned, doing it yourself, it's not very expensive.

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Becky Griffin: Just doing those drilled holes. Another question that we've had from our dear friend Susan Myers is how far or do we know how far carpenter bees will travel to forage? Yeah, that's a great question. So I know like with honeybees, we usually say three to four miles is kind of, you know, average for those.

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Becky Griffin: Right.

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Bethany Harris: I don't know on carpenter bees. That's a great question. I don't know that I've seen anything in the literature directly about mileage, like how many miles they might travel. Oftentimes, I think that is kind of interdependent of where their nesting site is too, you know, and also where the forage sources is. So if they're nesting nearby and you got forage resources there, they're probably not going too far, right? You know, so I think it's dependent, but I've never seen like the mileage, like we say with honeybees, I've not seen a number of

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Becky Griffin: One more, another question or comment is Jimmy Gatt. He has seen the same thing that you talked about, the slits and the blueberries, where the carpenter bees will use those long tongues to get in there. So at that point, they're not buzz pollinating anything, right? Because they're not up in that flower.

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Bethany Harris: They're not. Yeah. So typically, you know, they're actually collecting that nectar directly from that little hole or slit that they've made in the flower, you know, and everything. And it's, it's interesting to watch when they do this and everything. Is he seeing it directly on the flowers or on the fruit too? He just mentioned the flowers. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm looking, um,

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Becky Griffin: Okay. Let's see. We've gotten a lot. You answered so many of them with your presentation. How many eggs on average does a female lay? Do we know that? Is there any literature on that?

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Bethany Harris: Yeah, so typically, and again, you know, thinking about the cavity structure that you kind of saw in the photo, I think it can vary, but I think three to five is kind of, you know, what I've seen in literature is what we're seeing. You know, there may be higher numbers at points, but yeah, I think it's typically around that amount.

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Bethany Harris: Another question from Lance Haney. Do carpenter bees predetermine the gender of the eggs in the tubes like other bees do? That's a very good question. Not that I am aware. I know other bees do that. I know honey bees can do that as well. We see that oftentimes. But with carpenter bees, I'm not aware of that. I've not seen that in the literature.

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Becky Griffin: So that's a great question. I may have to take a look at that because I'm not quite sure. So. Landscape is something to research because I know with mason bees and leafcutter bees they lay those females to the back and because the males they lay toward the front because they will mature quickly or faster. So Landscape has something to think on. I'll have to check that out. I'm going to have to do some research on that one.

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Becky Griffin: Everybody, I'm going to give you about 20 more seconds if you want to do the poll for us.

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Becky Griffin: And so after today, we will be taking this recording and it will be posted on the site page.

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Becky Griffin: the pollinator course recordings and Rich will let everybody know how to get there.

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Becky Griffin: I'm also going to be posting the studies that you mentioned, the literature that you mentioned, and some other resources in that week, so that those will be readily available for anybody that wants to dig a little deeper and see a little bit more about the studies that you mentioned.

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Becky Griffin: We also are excited that next week we will be talking about bumblebees. I will be on the I'll be on the chopping block with Rich Hatfield from Xerces. He and I work closely together in the Southeast Bumblebee Atlas. So we'll be talking about that next week. So you definitely don't want to miss that. We're both very enthusiastic bumblebee lovers. And Rich, is there anything I'm forgetting as we wrap up today?

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Rich Braman: Not at all, Becky, you have covered it all. Like you mentioned, we'll have this recording up, hopefully, at the end of this week. If not, probably sometime over the weekend. And I know we put the link out in the housekeeping slide, but you will get the link from us for sure in a follow-up email from this session.

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Rich Braman: So people look out for that folks. And Becky, I think you already mentioned it. All of the recordings and the resources are going to be on that same page. Right. Yes. And thanks again to Whitney and Bethany. You guys brought

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Becky Griffin: a good perspective for when we see these insects to think of them in a positive light and I so appreciate you taking your time and talents to be with us today and thanks to my co-host Rich. He and I like to tag team on things so this has been a joy and thank you guys for joining us and I'm sure hope that as you see carpenter bees this evening as you sit on your porch or take your walk you're thinking of them in a little different light.

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Becky Griffin: So with that, we thank you for coming. Y'all have a good evening and we will see you next week. Thank you. Nice job, you too. Thanks, Rich. Thanks. Great.