I recently came across one of the largest colonies of soil mining bees I’ve ever seen in Ohio. The image below shows the extent of the collection of these important plant pollinators found in Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum (SGCA).
Bees nesting in the ground may seem unusual. After all, our non-native European honey bee (Apis mellifera, family Apidae) nest above the ground, and in the eyes of the general public, they are the “poster child” for bees.