Insect and Spider Identification: Mining Bees?, 1 by SkeptikSharon

SkeptikSharon wrote:
I happened to see what I believe is a bee fly into a hole in the ground near my driveway today. It's somewhat near my lavender, where there are always at least one or two bees flying around. I can't get a picture of the bee itself, but here is a picture of it's hole. I've seen other small holes in the ground in other areas, but had assumed that it was perhaps from slugs or something?

I did some reading and it seems that the candidates are either some kind of mining bee or some kind of hornet or yellow jacket or something. I haven't seen hornets or yellow jackets around, and I'm always on the watch for anything even closely resembling a wasp (we occasionally have one or two try to make a nest near windows).

Kind of creepy. Right now, I'm not too worried about it being dangerous. Just fascinated, because I didn't even know there were bees that made homes in the dirt.