Small holes appearing in lawn overnight

[Tollington]

Hi,

Does anybody know what is digging these small holes in our lawn?

They’ve started appearing overnight, there must be about 10-15 dotted around the garden

They are about the width of a pencil. Yesterday we saw a wasp/bee go in one for about two seconds and then come straight out, not seen any since

TIA

voles or earthworms or some other bug.

our local park shut off a whole area as some rare bees decided to nest in the ground. wonder if it’s those. no idea what they are called but see if you can get a photo of whatever it is. google and see if rare in the uk.

i had bees under my house. masonry bees. dont seem to have done any damage.

i also had wasps in my wall. i got the pest guy out to those. hate wasps. love bees.

it’s the Sandpit Mining Bee (Andrena barbilabris) that was in the park. really cool. have a google and see if it’s that.

Mining bees if you are lucky. They are solitary so you wont get loads and loads.

Ashy Mining Bees? Cute greyish bees that will settle on you quite happily. We get 50+ each year.

As pp, there are quite a few species of mining bee. Difficult to get a sense of scale so possibly bumble bees? They do occasionally make small nests in the ground, though they normally use abandoned holes (from mice etc) rather than digging their own.

They're all really safe to be around and won't bother you. If they're not massively in the rest, leave them. Mark off the area so no one accidentally steps on and collapses it. They should be gone in 1-2 months.

Definitely some kind of solitary mining bee. They are very cute. You must have nice things for them in your garden!

We had mining bees in our old garden - they are lovely and don't sting. As others have said they are solitary. Leave them to it, they will pollinate your flowers as a thank you.

We had a bumble bee nest in our garden one year, and had an abundance of flowers that summer.

We had a beautiful leaf-cutting bee nest in one of our pots one year - just lovely to watch her flying back with chunks of leaf for her nest.

We need to treasure bees.

Thank you for the replies. It doesn’t sound like much to worry about then. I’ll have a Google

Last year we had a wasp nest under a bush and between some rocks. As long as they don’t return we’ll bee happy

“bee happy” 🐝 lol 😂

this year would be good to plant flowers fruit and veg as you have a convenient source of pollination so all your crops should be good.

dont let anyone kick footballs etc anywhere near them and watch if tipping water off patio furniture covers etc so you don’t drown the little creatures.

hope it’s a rare species!

Personally I would say it is where a bird (Starlings usually) have pulled up a Leatherjacket.🐦

We suffered badly with Leatherjackets when we moved in (NB) but it was an amazing sight when a flock of Starlings came down and dug dozens of Leatherjackets out of the lawn leaving a series of small holes just like that one.
Watching through a pair of binoculars, you could see them clutching several of the wriggly suckers in their beaks, must make for a tasty meal 🤢

Not leatherjackets and starlings, no. You can see the little spoilheaps of dirt the bees have dug out of the holes. Definitely solitary mining bees.

I think it's a bit early for bees. However, sympathies if it is as it puts the lawn/garden out of action for however long they are there as it's not a pest technically speaking but does mean you won't want to sit out amongst it.

Looks like a dung beetle hole to me @Tollington

Do you have any dog poo anywhere around your garden? (Or cat poo?)

Although....... the suggestions of mining bee could be correct, as it looks like that too!

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I found some in my garden at the weekend and googled lens them originally I thought oh no fire ants! But looks like Mining Bees which nest for 3 weeks as solitary. So cool!

A vole the width of a pencil?!

Wasps are both pollinators and they predate on pests. They really are very important in a bio diverse environment. I wish people wouldn’t destroy them or their nests