Hi Charlie and All:
 
>Carpenter Bees do look like Bumble Bees but they are a different
>species.  They are both in the family Apidae but Carpenter Bees
>are the subfamily Xylocopinae and Bumble bees are the subfamily
>apinae.
>
>Bumble Bees live in colonies similar to honey bees.  The Carpenter
>Bees does not maintain a nest nor does it use wholes already drilled.
>The holes that the Carpenter Bee makes in wood is a chamber to raise
>their young.  They eat into the wood about one inch and then make a
>right angle turn and eat for up to 4 or 5 inches.  They capture insects,
>place them in the hole they have made, lay an egg on the insect and
>the when the Carpenter Bee larva hatches it lives on the insect....
 
Now I am really confused.  It was my understanding that the difference
between bees and wasps was that bees were adapted to use pollen as their
protein source (vegetarian :) and wasps used insects (carnivorous :).
But you have just described a carpenter BEE with WASPLIKE behaviour.  Am I
mistaken about the difference between bees and wasps?  How do I reconcile
your post with the previous post about how excellent a pollinator the
"orchard mason bee" is?  Is that a different bee than the carpenter bee (the
poster thought they were the same).  Does the carpenter bee use both pollen
and insects?
 
Regards Stan (who is only sure that a carpenter bee is NOT what Mennonites
have when they raise a barn)