I must have the perfect soil and conditions for what I now know are ground,digger,mining, sweat bees ?. Got to admit was a bit overwhelmed by the numb...
Knowledgebase
Ground bees #876640
Asked July 10, 2024, 11:18 AM EDT
I must have the perfect soil and conditions for what I now know are ground,digger,mining, sweat bees ?. Got to admit was a bit overwhelmed by the numbers of holes and bees as there's hundreds. Holes are about 2" apart 400-500 square feet area away from house. Don't seem to sting as I walked by and not allergic. We do have a lot of flowers. Would like to know what species as we have here a good percentage of total population ! Lol
Marion CountyOregon
Expert Response
Hi Steve,
Wow! Can you include some photos of the bees and the nests? We have around 780 species of bees in the state and about 70% of them nest in the ground. So, it could be a lot of different bees. It could also be sand wasps, or some other kind of hunting wasp. As you note, these bees/wasps are not aggressive, so you should be able to get fairly close (although, they are probably fairly fast). These nests are usually active for a month, after which the young are safely provisioned below the soil for the following year.
Hope these make it to you. There seems to be more than 5 bees that come out when sun hits the ground out of one hole and they seem like just born as they stumble around before flight. There's like a colony of smaller holes 30 feet away in the shade waiting for sun. Thanks for responding,
Your guesses were close. It is definitely a sweat bee in the genus Halictus. My guess is Halictus confusus, which is a highly social species, which is also gregarious. I suspect there are multiple interconnected nests under the ground. These nests are not perennial and will disband by early fall when the colony produces reproductives, who will disperse for winter.
You might consider adding your observation to the GNBee project at Cornell. You can learn more about this project on our latest podcast episode:Best, Andony
Ok thank you..I'll look into that as we have a lot here. I understand the sweat bee likes to drink sweat from people ? , I'll find someone that sweats for research !
