Large male Carpenter Bee fends off predators seeking its

larvae in a 6" long x1/2" wide cylindrical burrow. The stingless male boldly hovers about the wooden picnic bench then darts after the mud-dauber wasp with a stinger. The Burrow id drilled into the wood of the bench six inches deep . This fight goes ocn all day long in the hot 80 degree sun, with neither bee or wasp eating. The next day the blue mud-dauber is found torn in half and dead on the sidewalk. The Carpenter Bee has powerfull jaws to chew wood to sawdust and caught the wasp and ripped it in half before it could get its stinger into the Bee. This is why you see insects hovering and darting around their hidden nest in the Summer.The Carpenter Bee can see a small fly about 25 feet away and immediately goes after it so that the fly won't lay an egg next to its daughter which is metamorphosing in the wooden chamber.