Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Buzzy bee or wasp attentive & hostile on earthy flower bed

6 replies

NewspaperTaxis · 18/05/2023 18:50

There aren't any flowers there yet - I have a rhododendron to plant and then marigolds. It had bad soil - it's a round flowerbed that got waterlogged in rainy weather, turns into a pond really so I tried to get the clay out and put down clay buster granules and new soil. However, my efforts are unsettled because on one part where the earth was sandstone coloured, a couple of wasps or young bees got buzzy around it, agitated and concerned - what have I done? I couldn't see any kind of wasps' nest there. Should I uncover the area, which was really a hole? What are they up to? There's nothing nutritional about the earth or soil to area them to it yet, I'd have thought.

OP posts:
BigglyBee · 18/05/2023 18:55

Some (mostly solitary) bees live in tiny tunnels in the soil, you might have been seeing young ones that had just emerged. I wouldn't worry about it, unless you see anything else to concern you.

NewspaperTaxis · 18/05/2023 19:04

Thanks - but why are they pissed off - might it be the parents concerned for their young 'uni? Sorry to be a soppy nit about it. I feel I ought to uncover it if so.

OP posts:
SleepingisanArt · 18/05/2023 19:10

Wasps can live in nests in the soil. I know as I managed to step on one last summer (totally invisible from up at eye level). The resulting attack was incredibly painful and I have scars on my legs from some if the stings. Proceed with caution! I have discovered that they don't nest in the same place twice so I'm apparently safe this year - but I do look down a lot more when in the garden!

AntoniaMacaronia · 18/05/2023 19:16

They could be mining bees building their nests. Have a google, see if they look similar.

@SleepingisanArt that sounds very painful, you poor thing.

APurpleSquirrel · 18/05/2023 19:23

Lots of species of bees - solitary, mason, even some bumblebees make nests in holes & underground.
Our mason bees are very busy atm - we have bee houses, & they're in & out all day filling up the tubes.
Maybe leave it alone for a bit? Or the area they are mainly in?

Buzzy bee or wasp attentive & hostile on earthy flower bed
NewspaperTaxis · 19/05/2023 00:01

Thanks everyone, I dug up the earth again and then saw a winged creature make its way into a hole so it seems I've done the right thing.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page