Carpenter bees look like Bumble bees except Carpenter Bees have a Shiny Abdomen(Black) and Bumble bees are furry.
Carpenter Bees typically have two generations a year, one in the spring(When the Wisteria is flowering) and one in the end of July and beginning of August.
Carpenter bees are great fliers. They are fast and have the ability to hover, take off very quickly and come back to the exact place of hovering they were just in. They typically will have there back legs dangle when hovering.These are typically males looking to mate with a female.
Females Sting, males do not. I have never been stung by a female but have read that it hurts. Females are usually covered with pollen when they return to the nesting gallery. Pollen splatters will be visible outside the females gallery on a surface.
When nesting they are solitary bees and the make a perfect 3/8th’s inch hole into wood. If left unattended they can do a lot of damage to structural timbers through time.
Here are a few images of Carpenter Bees.
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