{"id":6908,"date":"2015-04-10T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T16:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=6908"},"modified":"2015-02-16T21:45:44","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T02:45:44","slug":"ground-nesting-bees-are-beneficial-pollinators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2015\/04\/10\/ground-nesting-bees-are-beneficial-pollinators\/","title":{"rendered":"Ground Nesting Bees Are Beneficial Pollinators"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ground<\/a>

Ground Bee photo provided by Dr. Frank Hale, Entomologist at the University of Tennessee<\/p><\/div>\n

Spring signals the return of many species of birds and the bees to yards and gardens.\u00a0In early spring increased activity by ground nesting bees cause alarm for many people; dirt pile nests start appearing in bare patches\u00a0in the lawn. They are beneficial pollinators\u00a0in the\u00a0garden.<\/p>\n

Bees in the families Colletidae and Andrenidae represent the ground nesting solitary bees.\u00a0They do not form hives. Solitary bees\u00a0spend much of the life in the pupa stage in shallow underground tunnels or galleries; the queens live individually and raise their young.\u00a0Ideal location for the nests are warm sunny grassless patches in well-drained soil; the ground should warm up quickly in the morning.<\/p>\n

Nest or mound entrances are only a few inches across.\u00a0 Nests (holes) improve soil aeration holes that help in the downward movement of water and nutrients.\u00a0 Each spring ground bees abandon old nests, mate and build new ones.\u00a0Many females may nest in the same area.<\/p>\n

Ground bees pose little or no threat to people. \u00a0Male bees comprise the majority\u00a0of above-ground swarmers, and do not have a stinger. The mostly\u00a0subterranean queens do have stingers, but rarely\u00a0defend their nesting area. They are very docile and not likely to sting. However,\u00a0if you are stung, persons with extreme sensitivity should always carry an Epipen to protect against an allergic reaction.<\/p>\n

Ground bees are highly beneficial to your lawn and garden. To be rid of ground bees, you do not need to use pesticides.\u00a0Lots of ground activity, from frequent tillage, mowing, or irrigation, will destroy nests.\u00a0 Simply watering the area will cause\u00a0bees to move to another area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring signals the return of many species of birds and the bees to yards and gardens.\u00a0In early spring increased activity by ground nesting bees cause alarm for many people; dirt pile nests start appearing in bare patches\u00a0in the lawn. They are beneficial pollinators\u00a0in the\u00a0garden. Bees in the families Colletidae and Andrenidae represent the ground nesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[747,10,602,1180,828,777,630,1,113],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6908"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6940,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions\/6940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}