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XYLOCOPA VIOLACEA – Carpenter bee – Abeille charpentiere.
The blue carpenter bee, Xylocopa violacea, is one of the solitary bees found in southern and central Europe. It is about 25 mm long, glossy black all over with sparse black hairs. The opaque wings are dark brown with a lilac-coloured sheen.
Photo. Carpenter bee on one of it's favorite flowers.
Reproduction takes place in April / June with adults that have over-wintered from the previous year.
They will often be seen going in and out of holes looking for suitable wood in which to make their egg chambers, in doing so they will examine anything that resembles a hole, even in concrete posts, if this happens to be in the gaps in the walls of your stone house you should not be concerned, even in your roof structure there is no problem as it does not like dry, hard wood.
Degraded old logs, dead trees and branches etc. are the preferred location and normally an existing hole is used.
A single entry hole leads into multiple galleries into which the female lays her eggs, each one blocked in with a pellet of pollen which provides nutrition for the larva.
The adults then emerge at the end of summer and over-winter to continue the cycle.
They are not aggressive and rarely sting.
There are no other insects in France that resemble this bee, therefore there can be no possible confusion.
Conservation advice: Leave veteran trees to stand. Make a log pile in a corner of your garden; this can be hidden behind a bush or shrub.