Doublebanded Carpenter Bee

The Banded Carpenter Bee is a stout, long-tongued insect. They're called carpenter bees because they drill into plant stems, branches and timber to make their nests- so they may be pests in some cases. They'll use sawdust particles to build cell-partitions within the drilled tunnels. These bees do well in a variety of habitats, including fynbos, succulent karoo, farmland, marshland, coastal bush, woodlands, and of course, they're frequent garden visitors, too! They are typically solitary, meaning they care for broods alone. They're specialist pollinators of many vegetable and fruit crops, as well as indigenous plants. They're able to perform something known as 'buzz pollination', a behaviour which enables them to collect pollen from plants whose pollen remains firmly attached to the anthers.