Carpenter Bee Attack at 100'

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Oct 8, 2014
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What's with these carpenter bees and chasing Phantoms? Somewhere on my back deck there is a nest of carpenter bees because every time I fly back there they come out for the attack. These are huge wood boring bees usually not aggressive but some can sting. Anyway, they chase the Phantom 3 sometimes up to 250' or more. In this short 1 second video one chased me up to 100' before pealing away. You can see him go right up to the lens I guess to sting it but he gets too close for the camera to focus.

Filmed at 1080 and at 60 fps.
Oops, It won't let you do stop action with the slider. I guess YouTube only allows one second movements.

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Unlike a bird attack, at worst, I presume the props will take care of him, and come away unscathed! I have the same situation with hummingbirds, and have moved to the roof deck for launching, both for their safety and the P3P's, avoiding the feeder rush hour at dusk on the lower deck.
 
I'm guessing it's something to do with the frequency/sound produced by the Phantom.
 
I've experienced this for years with RC rotor craft. My Blade 400 use to be covered with Carpenter Bee blood and goo. We used to entice them by hovering next to certain gables that the CB loved and watch them get sliced n diced. Something to do with the sound the rotors create and I've seen it with single rotors, coax rotors and of course quads.

For the record the MALE carpenter bee has no stinger but both male and female have some impressive mouth parts that can leave a mark. Female CAN sting but you really have to make it rough on her to do so. It's more or less her last resort.

Ironically it's the stingerless male who is the aggressor and the one that will fly in your face.
 
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A lot of insects mate in swarms. This is just anecdotal, but in my experience (as a lifelong fly-fisherman), the mating swarms of insects sound a lot like a multirotor a hundred or so feet off the ground.

If you have flown other multirotors, you may have noticed that the Phantom line of aircraft have a more "swarm-of-killer-bees-coming-to-kill-you" sound than some of the others. Maybe this is a mating response to the sound.
 
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A lot of insects mate in swarms. This is just anecdotal, but in my experience (as a lifelong fly-fisherman), the mating swarms of insects sound a lot like a multirotor a hundred or so feet off the ground.

If you have flown other multirotors, you may have noticed that the Phantom line of aircraft have a more "swarm-of-killer-bees-coming-to-kill-you" sound than some of the others. Maybe this is a mating response to the sound.
Fly Guy here as well :)
 

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