Those bees...

OK, enough of the "travel blog." Anyone else dealing with ground bees? Never knew what a ground bee was until they settled in my yard last year. Last spring I found lots of holes in my gardens--little sandy cones--with a good number of bees buzzing low around them. Problem is, these holes were in, let's say, inconvenient places--up in my raised bed where I need to balance 4' above the ground to cultivate, plant and weed. They were also throughout my annual and herb bed, which I was about to dig up, mulch and plant and this year they're also in my lawn. 

Thought I was sitting on an immense hive. Scary--especially with a son who wants to stay inside at the sight of a bee. 

Did some research to figure out what had invaded my yard and found out some interesting things. Ground bees live one to a hole and are active just for about a month or so of the year. They like poor or exposed soil (hence why they like the area in front of my hemlock.) Some people just ignore them, knowing they'll eventually be gone, but I needed to dig right where they were. While I'm used to working among the bees, I had no interest in angering a bunch of them by digging up their houses.

I try to keep as organic as possible in my yard, so I was searching for a solution that would be compatible with that. Apparently a simple one is boiling water. So for all the holes that were in areas I would cultivate or right where I'd walk, my husband and I would head out at dusk when the bees would be back home. We were armed with a kettle of steaming water and a funnel and we'd put the funnel on the hole and pour in about a cup of water. 

The bees were back this year and we treated them once before we went on vacation. I see fresh activity (holes and cones), so we apparently didn't get them all. The ones in the lawn I'll leave--we just won't mow late in the day when they're headed back to their nest. We'll need to head out with the kettle again. My annual garden desperately needs to be turned so I can get ready to plant. And considering my late start on things this year, that should be now!

Interested in more?  http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/miningbees.html