Aggressive Ground Bees
Have you ever been walking in your backyard and been suddenly swarmed by bees? Perhaps you were mowing the lawn and hit a ground nest, and bees charged you, stinging you multiple times. Bees love to build nests in the ground.
Aggressive ground bees are problematic in the warmer months, as they’re territorial. It’s important to note that honeybees will never build their nests on the ground, as they prefer to make their homes in hives. Ground bees look for old rodent burrows, the hollow of a tree or log, debris piles, and other areas to build their colony.
It’s one of the reasons why it’s so challenging to find them when gardening or mowing. Children are often the unsuspecting victims of these bees, as they’re focused on having fun rather than their surroundings. A pile of leaves or other debris might look like a great place to play, but it can spell disaster.
5 Types of Common Aggressive Ground Bees
In New Jersey, five types of bees typically build a nest in the ground. Each bee is unique, and some aren’t really bees at all. Here is how to identify these aggressive stingers and some information on their habits.
1. Yellow Jackets
Yellow jackets are abundant in the Garden State. While they’re often called bees, this aggressive insect is a wasp. It belongs to the Vespidae family, which is technically called the genus Vespula.
Identification
Yellow jackets are easy to recognize by their distinctive black and yellow striped bodies. They are smaller and smoother than bees. Their bodies are smooth and have less noticeable hair. Their wings are transparent and fold inward when resting, and they have large black eyes that seem to stare right at you.
Colony Structure
The colony of yellow jackets is highly organized. All they need is one queen who will survive during the winter months to start the new colony the following spring. The queen lays eggs that develop into workers. She can lay anywhere from 200-300 eggs daily, up to 2,000 in her lifetime.
A mature nest will have 1,000 to 4,000 workers, but some are as large as 10,000. The workers take over foraging, nest building, and caring for the queen’s new offspring. Toward the end of the season, the colony produces new queens and males.
The males mate with the new queens, who find a place to hibernate over the winter. The entire cycle starts again the following year. The rest of the colony, including the original queen, dies off with the first frost.
Behavior and Other Important Facts
It’s important to teach your children how to recognize yellow jackets and to understand their aggressive behavior. If you find a nest in your yard, it’s best to steer clear and call a professional for safe removal.
Yellow jackets are known for their aggressive nature. They will attack you and can sting multiple times unlike most bees. They will defend themselves and their families with all their might, especially if you come near their nests.
2. Bumblebees
Bumblebees have an essential job in the ecosystem. They look cute and cuddly but play a critical role in keeping flowers blooming and crops thriving. Have you ever wondered why they seem so busy? It’s because they’re outstanding workers.
Identification
Bumblebees are typically larger and fuzzier than other bees, with distinctive black and yellow bands around their bodies. They’re covered in soft hair, which makes them look fuzzy. These bees have a strong build, large wings, and a distinctive buzzing sound that’s undeniable when they’re in flight.
The queen is the largest in the bumble family and can be 17 to 25 mm long. The workers are the smallest of the nest and can be anywhere from 8 to 18 mm in size.
Nest Building Habits
Bumblebees prefer to use preexisting hollow spaces close to the ground. Their nests are much smaller and less organized than the colonies of honeybees or wasps. A bumblebee nest usually only has a few hundred bees, as they prefer to keep things smaller. The nests are made of a mix of wax and plant materials.
Colony Structure
The queen hibernates during the winter and awakens in the spring, ready to get busy. She starts laying eggs almost immediately and can lay a few dozen daily. It’s not uncommon for the queen to lay around 2,000 eggs in her lifetime.
The first offspring have an essential role in the hive. The workers will take on all duties so the queen can focus on egg-laying.
At the end of the summer, the queen will shift her focus from the reproduction of workers to producing drones and new queens. She’s setting up the hive for the following season. The drones will leave the nest to find queens to mate with and form new colonies.
The queens will do as the queen before and find a place to hibernate and wait for her essential job the following year. A queen can live up to a year, but the rest of the hive members will only live for a few weeks to two months.
Behavior and Other Important Facts
Bumblebees are not known to be aggressive but will sting to defend their nests. Their stingers are not barbed, so they can sting as many times as necessary. Sadly, the number of bumblebees has declined due to climate change, the use of pesticides, the loss of habitat, and disease. Many conservation efforts are in place to help protect these vital pollinators.
3. Sweat Bees
3. Sweat BeesIf you’ve ever noticed tiny bees more interested in your sweat than your garden, you’ve encountered sweat bees. These little pollinators love perspiration. While they love the salt from your sweat, they also have an essential role in pollination that can’t be ignored.
Identification
Sweat bees come in all shapes and colors but are easy to spot due to their iridescent hues. They can be green, blue, or even a bronze-like color. However, you can’t rule out that you might run across some that are brown or black, either.
These are smaller bees, ranging from 4 to 15 mm. They don’t have hair like honeybees, and their bodies are very slender.
Nest Building Habits
Sweat bees look for lightly vegetated soil, though some species will also look for rotting wood to build their nest. They love to be close to the ground, dig tunnels, and create individual cells for each egg to be laid inside. It’s not uncommon for these nests to be found in clusters.
Colony Structure
One interesting aspect about sweat bees is that they are very social and prefer a defined colony structure, but other species within this category like to be loaners. In the loaner’s nest, the female builds and makes provisions for her nest and doesn’t seek help from other bees.
The social species divides the labor. One queen does the egg-laying and only lays a few a day. Then, there are worker bees who have the vital job of maintaining the nest. They look for food for the rest of their colony.
The lifespan of sweat bees varies by species, and over 1,000 species have been identified. Workers can live a few weeks to a few months, while queens can live up to a year, including their hibernation period.
Behavior and Other Important Facts
The salt in your body provides nutritional value to these bees. Sweat bees are not known to be aggressive but will become hostile to protect their hive. Compared to the sting of other bees and wasps, an encounter with sweat bees won’t be as painful, as their sting is mild.
Despite their small size and pesky behavior, sweat bees are valuable pollinators contributing to many plant species.
4. Cicada Killers
The cicada killer wasp is so large it will make you do a double-take. These critters are more interested in hunting cicadas than stinging humans, but when you interrupt their hive, it’s a whole different ballgame.
These solitary giants come around in mid-summer and are often mistaken for a hornet. But while their name suggests otherwise, these bees are not as aggressive as the hornet.
Identification
The cicada killer wasp measures anywhere from 1.5-2 inches in length. Their body is black and has yellow markings on their abdomen, so they’re often confused with yellow jackets. They are by far one of the largest wasps in North America.
Nest Building Habits
Cicada wasps like to nest in the ground. They prefer sandy, well-drained soil over wet soil. They love to look for bare patches in lawns and gardens. You must be careful around sidewalks and driveways, too, as they can use the sandy dirt from these areas.
Colony Structure
Cicada killer wasps are solitary insects, as the females care for the nest alone. They don’t have a colony, so she must dig a burrow for her eggs. She will go up to 10 inches deep, and it can be several feet wide. Within the nest are chambers. These chambers will be used to house a single egg.
Once she mates, she looks for cicadas to sting and paralyze. She needs them to feed her larvae once they hatch, so she drags them back to the chambers and lays an egg on them. These wasps are seen in the summer months, and their presence usually coincides with the seasonal times for cicadas.
Behavior and Other Important Facts
These wasps help control cicada populations, which makes them a helper in keeping ecological balance. Many fear these wasps but don’t understand or appreciate their unique role in nature. Despite their frightening appearance, they are fascinating creatures.
5. Digger Bees
5. Digger Bees Have you ever noticed tiny mounds of dirt with a single hole in your garden? Digger bees are nature’s underground architects, and they will work tirelessly to tunnel through the soil to create their homes. These solitary bees are fascinating to watch and necessary for pollinating plants and flowers.
Identification
Digger bees are smaller bees that range from 7 to 18 mm in length. They come in various colors, such as metallic blue or green, and can even be solid black. Their hairy legs and bodies help them collect and transport pollen. Digger bees look very similar to honeybees, but the nesting habits of the two species differ.
Nest Building Habits
As ground nesters, these bees prefer sandy or loose soil with plenty of sunshine. They often build in gardens, lawns, or even agricultural fields. The female burrows several inches deep into the ground and clears cells that branch off from the main tunnel.
She uses the secretions from her mouth to line the cells and fills them with pollen and nectar before laying the egg. Unlike many other bees that lay hundreds of eggs in their lifetime, she will lay a mere 10-20.
Colony Structure
Digger bees are solitary, and the female makes all the provisions for her nest. Though they prefer to be alone, they will often build their nests close together. While it may look like a colony, each nest is managed by one single female.
Behavior and Other Important Facts
Digger bees are typically active during the spring and summer, their breeding and nesting season. They won’t sting you unless they feel threatened. Their focus is to forage for their nests and to defend their eggs.
Dealing with Aggressive Ground Bees
You will notice that all these bees don’t typically come after humans unless they feel threatened. Unlike hornets that will hunt you down, most bees and wasps are busy caring for their colonies and prefer to be left alone.
If you encounter a ground nest, don’t try radical methods to remove it. Dumping hot water down the holes or using pesticides may or may not solve your problem. The real issue is that these wasps and bees can come after you in droves if your methods don’t work.
It’s best to call a pest control professional when dealing with aggressive ground bees. They have suits that protect them from being stung and the proper methods for eradication.