Bee or beetle? Kelowna gardener finds fascinating bug

It isn’t a bee and it isn’t a beetle.

What Kelowna gardener Jen Frost found in her garden eating a tomato last week was a bumble flower beetle.

“It was flying around and I couldn’t figure out what it was,” she said. “It was flying like a bee, it looked like a bee and it sounded like a bee. But when I looked closer I thought, ‘that’s not a bee.’”

The fuzzy insects are members of the scarab beetle family known for their yellowish-brown wings adorned with rows of small black dots, according to What’s That Bug.

The bugs are half an inch long and often mistaken for bumble bees because they mimic the buzzing sound of bees when flying.

The beetles eat pollen, nectar, plant sap and fruit juices are commonly found around dying vegetation where they lay their eggs.

“It landed by a tomato and I was able to take photos of it, then I scooped it up in a container to look at it more. I’ve been gardening for years and I’ve never seen one of these before,” Frost said.

Bumble flower beetles are most active during late summer and early fall, when they seek out flowers for both food and reproduction.