[1] The common name "carpenter bee" derives from their nesting behavior; nearly all species burrow into hard plant material such as dead wood or bamboo.

The main exceptions are species in the subgenus Proxylocopa, which dig nesting tunnels in suitable soil.

[4] In several species, the females live alongside their own daughters or sisters, creating a small social group.

With their short labia the bees cannot reach the nectar without piercing the long-tubed flowers; they miss contact with the anthers and perform no pollination.

[7] Many Old World carpenter bees have a special pouch-like structure on the inside of their first metasomal tergite called the acarinarium where certain mites (Dinogamasus species) reside as commensals.

In solitary nesting, the founding bee forages, builds cells, lays the eggs, and guards.

[9] Carpenter bees make nests by tunneling into wood, bamboo, and similar hard plant material such as peduncles, usually dead.

They vibrate their bodies as they rasp their mandibles against hard wood, each nest having a single entrance which may have many adjacent tunnels.

The entrance is often a perfectly circular hole measuring about 16 mm (0.63 in) on the underside of a beam, bench, or tree limb.

[11] Carpenter bees can be timber pests, and cause substantial damage to wood if infestations go undetected for several years.

[12] Two very different mating systems appear to be common in carpenter bees, and often this can be determined simply by examining specimens of the males of any given species.

[4] Woodpeckers eat carpenter bees, as do various species of birds, such as shrikes and bee-eaters as well as some mammals such as ratels.