I live in Colorado in a mountain town, and I have been seeing these giant bees for several years now. They really are huge, but otherwise look like bumbles. No white face or black backsides. They just look exactly like bumbles. I am a bit concerned about them this year as they keep ending up on my screen porch. Day after day I gently remove them and place them on plants outside but as soon as I open the porch door they fly back in. I have plenty of plantings that are designed to attract bees outside as well as water and plenty of shady spots. Does anyone know why they keep coming in? Thanks for all the great postings-they really helped.

Apologies to those upset by my post above. My efforts have certainly not been aimed at exterminating all of the Carpenter Bees, it was only when the hovering, buzzing cloud of bees in front of the garage grew so numerous that it wasn't possible to get into the garage without one or more threatening, dive-bombing and chasing me, that I would find a small straight stick and and swing it at the hovering, threatening male bees. Even then, even with careful focusing and aiming, it might take dozens of missed swings before one does connect. Often times the bees seem to decide "this guy's crazy" and fly off on their own before I connect with any and I'm fine with that result. I considering it "sporting" to choose a method with such a low probability of killing one. I consider my method less harmful to the species than those further up-thread who use a tennis racket, where every swing likely results in a hit and a kill. And much less harmful than stuffing an alcohol soaked cottonball into their hole. which will condemn the developing larvae in the nest to a slow death by starvation and likely will kill the female through poisoning as she tries to chew her way through the cottonball to reach her family. And I consider stomping them after hitting them a quick merciful death as opposed to leaving them buzzing and injured and unable to fly, where they may slowly die from their injuries or be eaten alive by ever-present, opportunistic ants. I much prefer not killing, but when it is necessary I feel it should be as humane as possible. Some of the objections here seem similar to those who object to using a snap-trap on mice, who instead advocate using either poison bait which results in the mouse being just as dead, but also may result in a predator species, a cat, a fox, an owl or another raptor, being sickened or killed; or using the sticky glue traps, that result in a slow, protracted, agonizing death that seems straight out of the dark ages.

Just an fyi, we had some variety of bees squeeze in between a tiny spot of aluminum siding and the electric meter on our house. The bees removed the insulation in an area between studs and pulled grass etc. inside the space. We heard buzzing inside the wall, and noticed an unpleasant odor. We removed a section of drywall and used insect spray to kill them, no other choice. We had to replace the plywood and insulation in the area, do some super cleaning and do some superior caulking. Don't fool around and wait for them to leave or die, you may have a big mess now. Sherry

Unlikely that such a widely-distributed bee would never occur in SC. You will have to compare yours with B. pensylvanicus to see if your ID holds up. Perhaps you have other bumblebee pictures from your property to compare also.