Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: Lastfling on April 06, 2021, 05:47:20 pm
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Can anyone identify these bee’s. My son was mowing yard and said they came out of ground. They weren’t aggressive but and according to him there were a bunch.
(https://i.ibb.co/W68jZ2T/4-A97606-C-5-AFE-4-C5-E-873-A-9-DFC727-B233-A.jpg) (https://ibb.co/W68jZ2T)
(https://i.ibb.co/G3YBp0F/C63475-FC-EC75-4-F73-A7-D7-C6-BB9-A3749-AA.jpg) (https://ibb.co/G3YBp0F)
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My guess was a Mason bee, but I didn’t think they came in, to quote him, bunches 😊
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It's difficult to say from those pictures, but the question I have is were they really nesting in the ground or just working there? 70% of bees nest in the ground, and while almost all of those are solitary, many nest aggregately, meaning they'll build their nests near each other, but they don't work together to build the nests, which could explain why so many were "bunched" together. Mason bees actually do not nest in the ground, they nest in holes drilled by other insects in wood or in hollow stems, but they gather mud to cap their nest chambers with. If they are mason bees, then they weren't nesting in the ground, just collecting mud there, and many females could easily be working the same patch of dirt.
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15 is correct. It is a native bee. It looks like it built a tunnel in a bare patch of ground, which is why the Xerces Society and other native bee advocates recommend leaving a bare patch or two in your yard. There are also recommendations about leaving native and perennial plant stems standing until spring. Some native bee species create nests in the hollow parts of the stems.
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Thanks all! Sorry about the pic quality. I wish I could answer the questions regarding gathering vs inhabiting but I can’t, as I wasn’t there. I did send him a pic of a mason bee and he agreed it looked very similar.