Last fall, I received calls and emails about ground dwelling yellow jack wasps. The yellow jackets came out of their nests in droves, chasing the unwilling client who received the onslaught of their stings. The nests were usually found during the autumn cleaning of their gardens.
Why am I writing about it now? For those who may have been stung by these yellow jacket animals, they will want to permanently rid the wasps as soon as they notice the burrowing activity.
Before checking these ground wasps this spring, please make sure they are yellow jackets and not a ground bee.
There are many types of small bees that form individual (single) burrows in the ground and are also important plant pollinators. These bees are members of the Andrenidae family, with several species found in Ohio. Members of the Colletidae family are also found in our state and include so-called cellophane or gypsum bees, which are based on the interesting practice of females lining their ground cavities with a cellophane-like substance. Even the Apidae family, which also includes honey bees (Apis mellifera), has some members that dig into the ground called “dredge bees”.
The visual difference is that wasps do not have hair on their bodies. However, bees have branched hair, technical term plumose. The plumose hair enables the bees to capture pollen grains more effectively.
Bees are well covered by plumose body hair. They also have thousands of unbranched hair that cover their bodies and serve sensory purposes.
These ground-dwelling native bee pollinators are typically 3/16 – 3/4 inches long, depending on the species, and may have banded abdominal muscles. Women dig individual caves several inches deep into the ground. They prefer to nest in well-drained soils that are easily exposed to sunlight. This includes areas in the landscaping with sparse vegetation, such as B. Openings caused by weakened lawn grass.
Each burrow consists of a hole the diameter of a wooden pin surrounded by a mound of loose, excavated soil particles. The loose soil particles can disappear after heavy rainfall and just leave the hole. Ground or mountain bees are considered to be single bees without a social structure.
However, large numbers of women often find their burrows close together, giving the appearance of an organized colony. The collective nesting behavior can be linked to maximizing the chances for men to find the women and mate with them.
The females become receptive to mating after supplying their burrows with bundles of pollen mixed with nectar to feed their larvae. You can watch receptive women peek out of their caves. If you keep watching, you will see one or more men yelling around the entrances to the den to meet a woman, which usually results in a mating scrum. At this point you should look the other way.
Mated females lay multiple eggs in their burrows and the resulting larvae feed and develop on the pollen and / or nectar banquet provided by the females. Winter is spent in the caves as a pupa, with adults appearing in spring to start a new round of bees.
Mining bees are important polylectic plant pollinators, meaning they collect pollen from many different plants. They are especially important for pollinating spring-flowering food crops such as apples, cherries and blueberries.
Unfortunately, the low flight schedules and men’s collective buzz can be scary for kids and adults alike. While the females are busy digging and tending their burrows, the combative males cross threateningly back and forth across the ground and chase after other males or possibly predators. It’s all an excitement because the men lack thorns.
Individual soil-digging bees, including mining bees, are not aggressive. You almost have to try to get stung. Even then, the stings from these bees don’t grab much; Their small spines cannot penetrate far into the skin. Only the female bees have spines or oviposition. The main purpose of the ovipositor is to lay eggs.
Of course, large numbers of bees buzzing around knee level can cause fear in the uninitiated. This usually leads to the ill-advised efforts to get rid of these beneficial insects, including the application of insecticides. This practice is strongly discouraged. Instead, cultivation practices that aim to thicken turf grass and mulch garden beds will convince bees to dig elsewhere.
