Sluggin' Along: Struggling Bees: Part 2

While carpenter bees (Xylocopa virginica, the Common Eastern Carpenter Bee) are also negatively affected by cold weather, they do not usually die like, for instance, honey bees (Apis). Unlike honey bees and bumblebees (Bombus), carpenter bees are not social insects. Therefore they look after their own interests as opposed to sacrificing themselves in the winter for a few young queens to perpetuate the clan in the spring. In a carpenter bee nest, the females will look after the eggs and larvae, supplying them with food (a pollen-nectar mixture called "bee bread"), while the males will feed themselves. In the winter, young adults will hibernate in old nests and emerge in the spring to mate. Then the females will drill a new nest, lay their eggs, and the process will begin anew. Carpenter bees might also "renovate" preexisting nests.

On a chilly, early autumn day, while making the rounds of the backyard early in the afternoon, I came upon a male carpenter bee that was struggling mightily on a trimmed daylily stalk. He couldn't seem to lift off, and when he would try to stretch out his legs he would just topple over. Watching him in the midst of this, making eye contact, I was so tempted to give him a personality, like a human. For there were times when he seemed to follow me, to move towards me...Eventually, when I returned later, he had managed to fly away.

This is the beginning of a series of pictures that were difficult for me to take. He was straining with all his might to propel himself off the stalk, but he just couldn't. And he kept looking at me, as imploringly and pitifully as is possible for a bee, because of course he didn't understand what was wrong with him.

This is one of my favorite pictures. For some reason he would move that front leg quite frequently and, as you can see in the next photos, hold it close to his body. It appears he might be trying to rub that whitish substance off his face.