Check out the Drone Carpenter Bee

http://www.pollinator.com/identify/whatsbuzzin.htm

castlemaster,

Very interesting! This could possibly be a drone carpenter bee! I will look for the white face (and black rear) next time he confronts me in the garden. I can pretty much count on him to zoom up close and personal whenever I am out there cutting flowers. Will let you know what I discover. Thanks for posting a useful reply.

Generally these bees are very curious and hover almost still right in front of you. I see alot of them, as a painter. Yes they are huge. since I read the article from the above link, I am no longer afraid of being stung!

I love bumbles, they are harmless, itÂs normal that they check you out by flying around you ones or twice.
If you have a bee nest in the ground and sting you, they are not bumbles.
Konrad

i have just been watching a giant bumble bee in my garden (in scotland) i have never seen anything like it! it was quite happily eating of my budlia, it had an enormous tounge, not a white face though, and it was about 5 times the size of a normal bumble!

Not sure about the bee in Scotland, but the enormous bees on the east coast of the US are most likely Giant Resin Bees.

They are originally from Asia, and first appeared in the Carolinas a few years ago. No one knows how they got here.

They are easily twice the size of bumble bees/carpenter bees. They may look menacing, but they are NOT aggressive. They nest in abandoned carpenter bee holes (they are incapable of damaging wood themselves) and in my yard seem to prefer Agastache & Nepeta.

They have become one of my favorite bees, simply because they are so large, it's easy to observe their behavior.

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.

Greetings from Toronto Canada, thanks for the above postings... A couple of days ago, I had my ist encounter with a GIANT bee...would have love to have taken a picture as it was bigger than my 2 thumbs put together... Had thought that I had gotten way too much sun... I was HUGE, almost the size of a mouse... Was fusy trying to keep my 3 dogs away from it. Hope it visits again sso I can take a pic!

When I first moved to Spokane we would always see this HUGE bumble Bee, it was as big as a mouse, we thought it was a large humming bird but didn't know anything about it. It didnt come back the following year. Now I have giant bumble bees in my yard and they are so neat and slow i want to encourage them to stay in my yard. But i don't know anything about them and i cant find any pic that looks like them. I have planted allot of flowers this year and hope they stick around but i have so many different bees im worried they might chase them off...does this happen?

Looks like you did a excellent job attracting bees,...good for you!

Most likely they will get along with each other, sometimes it can be a bit of a shovel going on but then they just move away to another flower.

A sunny morning, New Years Eve near Dover UK in the morning, I saw this huge bumble bee against my conservatory glass, trying to get out. It seemed very large like an earlier post like two thumbs put together. He flew away thankfully and set off for France.... Clare

Cool.