Burrowing bees

Jacquimcmahon

evening everyone. I have just done some research and discovered that I apparently have a burrowing bee as a new resident in my terrace. 

It is happily excavating  a hole in the soil of one of my pots of succulents. He’s tiny and really interesting to watch (he can move stones much heavier than it can be!), all the same is the bee or it’s offspring likely to do any actual harm to the plants, or just make a mess of my nicely arranged white pebbles?

any ideas?

pansyface

Your bee is a solitary bee, I imagine, and he is a she. That’s why she is working so hard.😉

She’s digging a tunnel and she’s planning on laying some eggs down in there. When the egg hatches, the baby bee will find that mum has left it some food in the fridge and it will tuck into that. And later, when it’s bigger, it will emerge from the tunnel and fly off to find another solitary bee for a bit of rumpy pumpy.😘

No great damage done to your garden in the great scheme of things really.😊

Life is not all a bed of roses for the solitary bee, though

http://wildlifearticles.co.uk/whos-laying-nest-crafty-nest-parasites-bees/

yorkshirerose

It's amazing where they make their nests. I've found one in a hanging basket before now - very strange to hear petunias buzzing! I had to take them out to find out the culprit ( I left the bee in peace)

Jacquimcmahon

Thanks, don’t know why bees are always « he » in my mind even when I knew rationally if it was nesting it would be a she.

pansyface

Ninety nine point nine percent of honey bees are female.

I once knew an old beekeeper, a neighbour, in Sheffield where I grew up. I had shown an interest in bees and so, one day, he invited me to join him when he opened up one of his hives. I was about 17 at the time. 

He showed me the queen and the workers. He said that they were all female. They were all busy busy busy bees.

Then he showed me a male bee. It was just sitting about doing nothing.

He laughed and said “see, all blokes do is bugger abaht all day while women ger on wi’ work”.

😁

Jacquimcmahon

The bee must be well at home on my terrace I’ve just watched it make a new hole in another pot. Also noticed all the bamboo in the bug hotel is now occupied as are the hollow canes of my sweet peas wigwam.

LG_

They are amazing to watch. I have loads of them in the bare, dry soil under the conifers at the end of my garden. Unfortunately, when I was sorting out that area I must have inadvertently covered some of the holes as I noticed bees buzzing around as if they were looking for something. I couldn't do anything about it at that stage. There were soon new holes, so I'm hoping I didn't mess things up too much for them