A Bee Story: September 2026

Soft Wool, Tough Bee: Meet the Wool Carder

At first glance, the European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) seems to have a rather gentle story. A female visits fuzzy plants such as lamb’s ear and uses her toothed mandibles to scrape tiny hairs from the leaves. She gathers these fibers into a ball and carries the soft “wool” back to an existing cavity, where she uses it to construct her nest. 

Spend a little more time watching wool carders around a favorite patch of flowers, however, and you may discover another side to their story. 

The males can be downright bullies. 

A male may claim a productive patch of flowers and patrol it repeatedly, darting after other bees and insects that enter his territory. He is defending flowers that attract females. Male wool carders cannot sting, but they have pointed projections at the end of the abdomen that can be used during these aggressive encounters. 

Despite its European origins, the wool carder belongs to a very familiar bee family: Megachilidae, the same family that includes mason and leafcutter bees. Female members of this family have one particularly interesting characteristic. Rather than carrying pollen primarily on their hind legs, they collect it on specialized hairs called a scopa on the underside of the abdomen. Look closely at a female wool carder, and you may see a belly dusted with pollen.  

And just as “native bee” doesn’t describe a single kind of bee, neither does “wool carder.” Anthidium is a remarkably diverse genus, with more than 160 species worldwide and 23 species reported in North America. Some Anthidium species are native to western North America. Our European wool carder, Anthidium manicatum, is not.  

That’s an important distinction. When we see a honey bee in Clark County, we’re generally seeing the familiar western honey bee, Apis mellifera. But our native bees represent an extraordinary diversity of families, genera and species, each with its own adaptations and behaviors. 

So how did this particular European bee become one of our neighbors? 

Anthidium manicatum is native to Europe and also occurs naturally in parts of North Africa and western Asia. It was accidentally introduced to North America and was first recorded near Ithaca, New York, in 1963. It eventually moved westward; by the 2000s, researchers were documenting its rapid expansion through western North America. Today WSU considers it widespread in Washington and the Anthidium species most likely to turn up in our home gardens.  

Exactly when the European wool carder first arrived in Clark County is harder to pin down. But today it is part of the bee community we can encounter here, particularly in gardens offering both abundant flowers and the fuzzy plants females use for nesting material. 

Perhaps that’s what makes this bee such an interesting one to watch. She gathers soft plant fibers to furnish a nest and carries pollen beneath her belly. He fiercely patrols the flowers, chasing away competitors. 

Soft wool, indeed. But definitely a tough bee.

-Anne Bulger, Friends of RNWR Board Member, & OSU Master Melittology Lead Instructor for the RNWR Complex

Image of Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum) by Walter B. Klockers