Mastodawn

Stephie Jun 28, 2024

PLEASE DON'T KILL HER 🙏🙏🙏

This is a Carpenter Bee that is appearing in our gardens right now. It's called a Xylocope bee & is the biggest bee in Europe (2.5 cm). Xylocope is the so-called "lonely" bee, but it can live in colonies, i.e. side by side. Black with blue wings, she is very beautiful but can be scary - her flight is fast & very loud but not aggressive, & rarely stings (its sting is for protection.... Some people mistake her for an Asian Hornet....

#CarpenterBee #Xylocope

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gnaddrig

@newstephie I've never seen a blue one yet, but the black variety has become quite common around here (between Frankfurt and Basel).

I've seen Asian hornets, too, and I don't see how one could mistake one for the other (the hornets having almost no fur and being very black and yellow without a trace of blue).