Wedding Showers and Giant Resin Bees

Sunday was Beth's wedding shower. Contrary to some practices, I attended and we had a great time. We have a living room full of gifts! An interesting thing happened after the shower. While packing up our cars in the excruciatingly hot parking lot, I noticed a large bee flying by Beth's ankle. It disappeared quickly and I initially thought it flew up her pant leg, but then realized it probably flew under the car.

Rewind a few hours in the day and I'm sitting at home reading the Jerseybirds mailing list. A local biologist posted a message mentioning a newly arrived alien species to NJ: the Giant Resin Bee. This large Asian bee has spread from North Carolina into the northeast and throughout the southeast. It's total environmental impact is not known fully, but it does compete with native carpenter and mason bees.

Fast forward several hours... we've arrive back home and have filled our living room with bags and boxes. Beth kicked off her shoes and I saw what I thought was a large piece of lint fall from her foot. I went to pick it up and it was a HUGE BEE! One wedding magazine later and it was a large dead bee. Sorry folks. It was intact and I inspected it. You can see where this story is going... it was a Giant Resin Bee!

Here are a few pictures:

Be sure to keep an eye out for these guys if you live in the "invaded" areas and report them if you see them.