Bros - Not Bros : an Example of Observation

You ever see this one floating around your social media?

I love this! --- But think about this.

You got your nice little permaculturized cob home, growing all these pretty pollinator-attractor flowers all over your door and porch, then all of a sudden you've got Bro's swarming all around your leisure area and your guests are freaking out and your kids are screaming and accidentally getting stung because they stepped on a Bro - then suddenly, Bros can kinda become Not Bros - at least to some folks.

So one day I'm laying in the sun (like I was able to do before I inherited grandbabies full time) and I happened to notice this big scary bumblebee-looking thing hovering around me. I'm a little nervous, wondering if he's thinking about me not being a Bro and maybe he's thinking of coming down and stinging me. So though I appear to be relaxing in the sun, I kinda have one eye open - wondering what he's gonna do.

Suddenly I see another big flying insect wander into the area and BAM - off goes this bumblebee-lookin' guy chasing him off - then he snapped right back into hovering in his earlier position like one of those sci-fi drones. This bee did this the whole time I'm lying there - zipping after every flying insect that came around and chasing them off. They do this all day long.

A few years later I notice another one of these guys on my girl's back deck doing the same thing - and crawling in and out of a hole in a piece of wood, making buzzy noises inside the hole. Turns out to be some sort of carpenter bee.

By Daniel Schwen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5550855

Apparently there are a huge variety of kinds of carpenter bees, so I'm not sure which kind, and it doesn't really matter. They work for free and they keep me from having to worry about how I'm going to keep the Not Bros at bay. I've had some bad experiences with yellow jackets in the past - not looking to cross their paths again.

So now we're thinking we should hang a hunk of wood with holes drilled into them so these guys can move in and help patrol the area for all the Not Bros - keeping them away from the kids - and me.