What are the bugs in my backyard?
by admin on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 | 5 Comments
The bugs look sort of like bee’s but are completely black (no yellow whatsoever) . They are getting into the crevices of our furniture on our back patio and leave a yellow like dirt behind. We recently planted a honey suckle and we haven’t noticed them until this year. If it helps we also have a small pond.
Dirt Daubers.
Use the same methods for controlling bees and wasps.
They can be a carpenter. Bee or just a bumbble bee. Or some other bee varaiton but not a wasp you can tell what a wasp is very easy. That yellow dirt is pollen and yes they are eating nectar from the honey suckle.
They’re carpenter bees. They are usually all black, and look like a bumblebee. Sounds to me like they’re burrowing into your patio, they’ll bore holes into wood to make their nests. The yellow powder might be dust from them carving out your wood a little, or more likely is pollen from your honey suckle. They probably were attracted to the honey suckle, then discovered your patio. They’re essentially harmless. I’ve even heard from someone working at a zoo that most of them don’t have stingers. I’m not sure how true this is. Here is a link that has a picture about halfway down the page and a link to some very helpful info.
They sound like some sort of mason bee (Osmia), or maybe an alkali bee or one of the many other burrowing species of bee. The solitary bees (and that’s probably what you’ve got) tend to be very mild-mannered, but the burrowing can be problematic if they’re actually boring holes in your furniture. If they aren’t causing any damage, I’d leave them alone. They yellow stuff they leave behind probably isn’t pollen as other people suggested; the bee goes to way too much effort gathering the pollen to drop it right outside the nest, and bees are very adept at tightly packing their pollen into their pollen baskets so that they don’t loose any. It could be sawdust or whatever material they need to excavate from their hole to make a decent nest, or if they’re using pre-existing cracks and crevices it may just be from the bees cleaning out the cavities and/or being sloppy with whatever nesting material they use (many use a mix of soil and salivary secretions). If they are the big carpenter bees (and carpenter bees are big – like a hefty bumblebee) they may act defensive – buzzing around your head and face to try to scare you off – but they’re all bark and no bite. If you want to get rid of them, you could use a household insecticide (wasp and hornet spray would do the trick).
Sounds like it could be mud daubers. Mud daubers look like wasps and build tunnel shapped dwellings out of mud. Or if the dirt you are seeing is actually saw dust you need to look overhead or somewhere for holes in wood. That would indicate carpenter bees. Google images for carpenter bees.