Is it possible to care for a carpenter bee?

[Photofilly16]

I know this thread is so old but I found this guy buzzing like crazy in my yard yesterday. A storm was coming in so I took him into my garage. I have him outside now in a Tupperware surrounded by a butterfly enclosure to protect him from birds. He has water, sugar water, and flowers. I know he’ll probably die

 

[Triskele]

I found a female carpenter bee (Xylocopa violacea) last year September. It is now early June and she is still alive. She has deformed wing virus. Her wings eventually became brittle and fell off. I feed her as high a sugar concentration in water as I can get without it falling out of solution. Heat the water do not boil. Normal white table sugar. I mix in a tiny amount of multivitamin with a dash extra Vit C. When time comes to feed I mix in a little pollen from the health store. If you mix it in before it encourages bacterial growth. Bottles, utensils and syringes are sterilized by boiling water. She drinks out of the syringes herself by now but initially I had to feed her. I just depress the plunger periodically through the day to make sure the tips remain full and she helps herself. In winter this was all she had to eat but since early spring I offer her fresh picked flowers daily. They love compact flowers and especially wildflowers. But she adored grape hyacinth, dead nettle and wisteria flowers. She lives in a butterfly habitat amd sleeps in a rolled up toilet roll (rolled tight enough to resemble a natural tunnel) which I have stopped changing since she prefers the smell of her used tunnel. She likes being stroked by a soft brush. It is like caring for a baby... lots of work so take note. My kids found her and begged me otherwise I would rather have had nature take it's course. But of course I love her now and have learnt so much.

 

[Triskele]

Store the sugar solution in the fridge and watch which flowers honey bees prefer to determine what to offer.