What kind of bees bore holes in the ground

A Question of the Week. Wednesday, May 15, Author s. Landscape and Greenhouse Field Specialist. Email: Emma. Erler unh. Email: answers unh. Show Economic Dev. You can recognize bumble bees Bombus sp. They usually mind their own business as they gather pollen and nectar from the flowers in your garden, storing it in pollen baskets located on their hind legs. Bumble bees form their bee colonies in underground holes and burrows abandoned by mice, chipmunks, moles and other rodents.

You can also find them nesting under sheds and garages, as well as in trash piles of old cushions or mattresses. From a couple hundred to 2, bumble bees can live in one colony.

Only female bumble bees sting if you get too close to the nest. The biggest solitary bees are carpenter bees Xylocopa virginica , native to North America.

These black and yellow bees look like bumble bees but do not have yellow or orange hairs but shiny, hairless abdomens. She then forms individual cells for her eggs along the tunnel, leaving a ball of pollen for the larvae to eat. The male bees will fly near you if you get too close to the nest, but cannot sting.

Females do sting if threatened. Miner bees Andrena are solitary, medium-sized, black ground bees with tan or reddish hairs. While the males can be very active and seem aggressive, they lack a sting and are also harmless. Like other bees, they are active foragers of nectar and pollen from flowers, making them beneficial pollinators.

Their nest entrances are small mounds of soil a few inches across. While they may briefly detract from the aesthetics of a well-tended lawn, they do absolutely no harm to the grass or soil—even improving it as their nests function as aeration holes, improving the penetration of water and nutrients. Eventually, as the nests are abandoned after the spring nesting season, the soil washes back into place with rain, disappearing completely.

These are NOT docile ground nesting bees, they are yellow-jackets and are bad tempered and aggressive. Do not confuse them with docile ground nesting bees or you will have a very bad day. If you feel you must get rid of ground bees even for the brief time they live in your lawn, there is no need to use pesticides of any kind.

Ground bees prefer dry soil to nest in, and simply watering the area that they have chosen will cause them to move to another area. If you find ground nesting bees return to your lawn in large numbers year after year, run a sprinkler on the area before they show up; ground nesting bees prefer dry soil to wet soil and will look elsewhere to make their nests. Make sure that you are evicting ground bees and not yellow-jackets.

A yellow jacket nest will look like a busy airport with many insects entering and leaving in a constant stream, and entrances can be well over an inch wide.

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