Underground Heros - Mining Bees

Those mysterious holes in your lawn are evidence of an underground pollinator civilization! Discover the mining bees who've been building tiny cities beneath your feet and pollinating fruit trees with Swiss watch precision. You'll never look at a lawn the same way again.

www.secretpollinators.com

KEY SOURCES

Mining bee biology and nesting

• Michener, C. D. (2007). The Bees of the World, 2nd ed. Johns Hopkins University Press — Andrenidae.
• Danforth, B. N., Minckley, R. L., & Neff, J. L. (2019). The Solitary Bees: Biology, Evolution, Conservation. Princeton University Press.
• Schrader, M. N., & LaBerge, W. E. (1978). The nest biology of the bees Andrena (Melandrena) regularis Malloch and Andrena (Melandrena) carlini Cockerell. Illinois Natural History Survey Biological Notes 108 — nest depths of six to seven inches for a bee roughly half an inch long, equivalent to twelve to fifteen body lengths.
• Missouri Department of Conservation, Andrenid Bees (Miner Bees) — each female's tunnel typically branches with a brood cell at the end of each branch; some species secrete a substance to plaster and waterproof cell walls.
• Iowa State University Yard and Garden, Mining Bees — bees are ¼ to ½ inch long; tunnel entrances are disruptive to lawns but not usually damaging; grass is generally thin before the bees arrive, not because of them; sting risk is highly overrated.
• NC State Extension, Bees in Turf. content.ces.ncsu.edu
• Cane, J. H. (1991). Soils of ground-nesting bees: texture, moisture, cell depth and climate. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 64(4), 406–413.

Aggregations and communal nesting

• Paxton, R. J., et al. Communal nesting in Andrena — multiple females sharing a single entrance while provisioning separate tunnels.
• Wild Pollinator Partners / Fletcher Wildlife Garden — Andrenids prefer bare soil with scattered vegetation and show a preference for the tops of slopes; tilling destroys nests and mulching makes the surface unattractive for nesting.

Emergence timing and early-spring pollination

• Cane, J. H. (2021). Global warming, advancing bloom and evidence for pollinator plasticity from long-term bee emergence monitoring. Insects, 12(5), 457. DOI: 10.3390/insects12050457
• Park, M. G., Blitzer, E. J., Gibbs, J., Losey, J. E., & Danforth, B. N. (2015). Negative effects of pesticides on wild bee communities can be buffered by landscape context. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282: 20150299 — Andrena diversity in apple orchards.
• Russo, L., Park, M. G., Blitzer, E. J., & Danforth, B. N. (2017). Flower handling behavior and abundance determine the relative contribution of pollinators to seed set in apple orchards. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 246, 102–108.
• Stone, G. N., & Willmer, P. G. (1989). Warm-up rates and body temperatures in bees. Journal of Experimental Biology, 147, 303–328.

Specialist mining bees and habitat

• Larkin, L. L., Neff, J. L., & Simpson, B. B. (2008). The evolution of a pollen diet: host choice and diet breadth of Andrena bees. Apidologie, 39, 133–145.
• Xerces Society (2017). Nesting & Overwintering Habitat for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects. xerces.org

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