Ground-dwelling bees

DaveC426913

DaveC426913

Valued Senior Member
Got stung by a bee yesterday on the meat of my thumb, while stomping about the front yard planting plants.

Fiery pain, followed by raging ache, settling after a few hours to deep bone-ache. Now, 24 hours later, it's just the world's itchiest mosquito bite.

Did not leave a stinger. Could barely even see the entry mark. Do ground-dwelling bees not lose their stinger when they sting?

These guys look exactly like honey bees - but about half the size: < 1cm or so.

I thought ground-dwelling bees were solitary. This was a nest - tunnel entrances all over a 3 foot radius. A dozen or two bees boiled around the area for an hour or so.

What ground-dwelling bees (in the Great Lakes area) are social?
 
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I would first do a little research if ground bees are effective pollinators. If they are, don't kill them but consider their nest as a beehive to stay clear of. From what I know, except for killer bees, most bees are not aggressive and if you have flowering plants nearby, treat them kindly. Humans tend to kill first and then find out that in the process they killed a nice flowering field close by.

Example, bumble bees are ground dwellers and very docile. But this may be of help;
Are Ground Bees Dangerous? What You Should Know About Ground Bees
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https://www.fightbugs.com/are-ground-bees-dangerous/

If you feel threatened, that site also has suggestions and recommendation of getting rid of the bees.
 
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Bumblebees nest underground, but they lose their stinger and die like honeybees. I stepped on the entrance to one, barefoot, when I was about 10. I thought I'd been burned, and couldn't find a stinger either.

It burned like a cigar or something had been held to my toe, I guess for about 30 minutes, then settled into a throb for a good while.

I try to avoid them now.
 
if memory serves
the queen of a nest of ground dwelling bumblebees can sting several times without loosing her stinger.
If I can avoid the stinging insects, I do not kill.

That being said:
This is an odd year here in Iowa
The DNR claims that we have 5x the normal compliment of mosquitoes, and the wasps around my house seem much more aggressive than normal---they built their nest in 2 of my doorways---coming out one doorway, I was stung twice in my forehead and once in my neck---coming out another - twice in my left hand and once in my right arm-the left hand swelled up and stayed swollen for 3-4 days(that ain't normal)-----ok I like the little critters for the good they do in the garden, but I killed(wasp spy) both nests without hesitation.
 
sculptor said:
they built their nest in 2 of my doorways---coming out one doorway, I was stung twice in my forehead and once in my neck---coming out another - twice in my left hand and once in my right arm-the left hand swelled up and stayed swollen for 3-4 days(that ain't normal)-----ok I like the little critters for the good they do in the garden, but I killed(wasp spy) both nests without hesitation.
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Once had a wasp fly inside my sunglasses. Can't think how I avoided being stung in the eye or anywhere near the eye, luck.
The vibration of that buzz on my eyelid I will never forget.
 
How about a hornet down your riding leathers?

The brother of a girlfriend of mine long ago was a Harley rider. Billy was cruising down Central Expressway in Dallas when a hornet bounced off his face shield, then down the neck of his jacket where it proceeded to work.

Billy let go of the handlebars and did the Tarzan chest-thumping routine in an effort to kill the thing before it could keep stinging, lost the bike, and slid about 200' down the highway on his butt.

That will always be remembered as the "Boulet Slide'. :p
 
My friend tells a story about a friend of his who once got a bee up his nose.
Guy spend ten minutes looking for all the world like he was trying to shatter his own nose in an attempt to kill the bee.
 
iceaura said:
That doesn't sound like a nest. Nests have very few entrances, and they are tightly controlled.

It sounds like an aggregation of many individual, solitary bee nests.
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Yeah, I came across this:

"However, they are more solitary and prefer a semi-social environment. Instead of building one shared hive, ground bees burrow in the ground... While they often burrow near each other, only one female bee digs each burrow.
...
It is possible for thousands of females to build burrows near each other if a large enough patch of salty earth is available for them to use."

https://www.terminix.com/pest-control/bees/types/ground/
 
Write4U said:
killer bees
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probably

call your local doctor/medical centre and warn them. ask them to have epi pens on standby.
sounds like you narrowly scaped with your life.
i suggest you go buy an epi pen and keep it in your pocket until the hive has been removed or exterminated.
 
https://www.jcehrlich.com/blog/africanized-bees-facts/
Another trait unique to the killer bee is its double-damaging venom. “Meletin, the primary pain-inducing compound in the venom, makes up about 50 percent of the mixture. Another component, called phospholipase A2, gives the venom the ability to damage human tissue. The damage can be so severe that the material can overload the kidneys, resulting in kidney failure days after the individual was stung,” said Eric Mussen, Extension Apiculturist at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
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either way, your reaction discribes you as being allergic OR they are of a deadly variety.
it sounds like several stings would have killed you.
 
RainbowSingularity said:
either way, your reaction discribes you as being allergic OR they are of a deadly variety.
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Are you talking about me?

Hah. No. Not sure where you got any allergic reaction part from - the site didn't even swell, let alone any systemic problems.

RainbowSingularity said:
note 1 hour being africanised honey bee anger longevity period, vastly contrasted to standard bees.
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Don't be silly. I had mashed most of the tunnels, they were just trying to find them again.

I went back to my planting, just made slow, gentle movements.
 
Yeah, centipedes hurt like hell. I was climbing one day and a little bitty one stung my forearm.

Worse than a scorpion. The pain faded after about an hour, but the neurotoxic effects lasted for about two days. I'm glad I wasn't very high up the rock face, anyhow.
 
I used to have a hose hanging on the wall about ten feet from my back door. I walked past that hose, a foot away, every day all summer before I noticed that there was a wasp nest right inside the coiled-up hose. (It was a wet summer and I hadn't needed the hose.) I usually have a nest in my yard every year. I never kill them but I prefer being aware of them.
 
Those are not bees, those are wasps. I've been fighting ground dwelling wasps in my yard all summer. They are super difficult to kill. In the end I used a shop vac over the hole, left on for hours.
 
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