Why did this group of carpenter bees die together?

Question

i woke up this morning and right outside my door there were 5 carpenter bees dead in a group. one was still on the side of my door panel looking alive but with no motion. there were 2 laying back up on the ground and the other two were belly up. but all the bees were within less than a foot of eachother.

ive never seen anything like this before and i was wondering if there was a good explanation for it.

Answer 1

Huh, that's interesting because I've never seen anything like it before!

Were their stingers away from their body? If that's the case, they may have been trying to protect themselves from some sort of predator.

Plus, usually worker bees go outside of the colony to collect pollen to make honey, which is probably why they were in a group.

And have you sprayed some sort of poison to get rid of bees? Then maybe you killed them while they were out looking for pollen.

I also read somewhere that they dig holes in wood to make nests. They may have died from doing that. Bees don't live too long, so that's the best explanation I have!

Answer 2

I have carpenter bees in a couple of locations around my house and have observed them for about 20 years.  I have never seen anything like that.  They do everything at about the same time.  So when they are nesting all bees are around the nest site.  The males spend most of their time around the hole guarding the nest.  They are not social but are one male with one female.  I do not know anything about their life cycle except what I have observed.  Perhaps after the young emerge the old die off.  I can not think of any other reason for such a die off except for pesticides.