ever heard of/seen honey bees nesting in the ground????

[joker1656]

Good friend of mine "discovered" (mowed over) a nest of "bees" in the ground around his house.  He was stung several times.  My first response was, "kill em, they aren't honey bees".  He informed me that he removed 5-6 stingers from his legs.  What gives?  I thought HBs were the only ones that left their stinger...I also thought that they did not "nest" in the ground.

My brother-in-law chimed in with an incident that occurred a few years ago.  He tilled a nest up.  He ran, of course, and jumped into their pool.  He was stung about 30+ times.  He stated that he removed at least that many stingers.  hmmmmmmmmmm? 

[Natalie]

I have bees that nest in the ground around and old cedar tree, my husband has also stirred up bees mowing the lawn.
Bumblebees nest in the ground and we had yellow jackets that were around the base of that old tree.

I just did a quick search online and according to this there are several types of ground nesting bees,
 and they mention bumbles, leaf cutters, digger bees, sweat bees, mining bees,yellow jackets and wasps.

blurb--
Bumble bees usually nest in the ground in a deserted mouse nest or bird nest. Occasionally they nest in cavities within a wall or even in the clothes drier vent.

Common name: Ground nesting yellow jackets; also see aerial nesting yellow jack

http://74.6.239.67/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=ground+nesting+wasps&y=Search&fr=yfp-t-150&u=ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2143.html&w=ground+nesting+wasps+wasp&d=e7P53hlMTV8W&icp=1&.intl=us

[kathyp]

i have heard that AHBs will nest in the ground.  they are the only honeybees i have heard of that will do that.  honeybees will nest close to the ground sometimes if there is a hollow log or similar.  had one of those this year.  would think you are to far north for that?

[beecanbee]

a. cerana will nest underground - as in a crypt.  I have removed them from such locations.  I have also seen them enter a hollow tree at the base of a root that was extended a foot from the base of a tree - meaning that they went down below ground level before up into the cavity of the tree.

The giant hornet in Japan only nests below ground (but keeps its stingers intact).

[holdthematers]

Over 20 years ago I was hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains near San Jose California when I went through some tree litter (leaves and twigs droppings) on the ground.  We trudged right through a bee nest in the thick litter.  I was the third one back from the front so by the time I got to it the the bees were out and angry.  Before I knew it I had 12 stings.  I was not into beekeeping then and did not really think much about whether it was yellow jackets or wasps or honey bees.  But I do remember removing stingers.  I don't think these would have been AHBs, and they were not bumble bees.  I think I just assumed they were honey bees, but maybe not.

On a different note, I got stung by a bumble bee for the first time the other day.       I was out irrigating the field and I must have disturbed it.  But it was only one, So I would have thought if I disturbed the nest then more would have come out.  It chased me off a number of times before I just decided to focus on a different part of the field. Oy Vey!

John