Several bees and wasps live underground, whether it’s in sand, soil or mud. They may dig into fresh earth, or use existing holes and cracks in the ground. When it comes to hibernation, life-sustaining queen bees hibernate, while workers, drones and other colony members die as the winter approaches.

One more point to mention – under no circumstances should you attempt to kill yellow jackets by pouring gasoline or other generic chemicals into the nest. Doing so will poison the ground, killing both plants and animals.

Sometimes it may appear that there is a colony of bees nesting in a lawn, but in reality, individual bees have been attracted to the area by the favorable soil conditions. If you don’t want them nesting in your landscape, the most effective way of discouraging them is to change the soil conditions.

Ground bees are never thought of as being dangerous and certainly are not aggressive. It is only the female that is capable of stinging and she will rarely sting and only if threatened and feeling the need to defend herself or her nest. The male is not even equipped with a stinger.

Question: Do all bees die if they sting you? The short answer is: No, of the bees capable of stinging, only honey bees die after stinging, due to the sting becoming lodged into human skin, thus injuring the bee as it tries to fly away.

Unless the individual is highly allergic, these bee stings are uncomfortable for several days, but rarely fatal. People often mistakenly call all stinging insects “bees.” Often, the vicious ground-nesting bee incident is really a yellowjacket wasp attack.

Because they are solitary bees, there is no queen bee. All female ground bees are fertile. The female bees also serve as worker bees, building the burrows and collecting food for the larvae. Larvae will develop into adult bees while underground, waiting until the next year’s mating season to dig their way out.

If you’d like to support ground nesting bees in your yard, the first step is to clear vegetation from a sunny, well-drained area. If possible, select sites on an open, south-facing slope. Leave some clumps of grass or other low-growing plants to prevent erosion.

“My best suggestion for maintaining ground-nesting bees is to provide areas with substantial bare soil or gaps in vegetation that will not get tilled.” Sunny, south-facing slopes are preferable, though some ground nesters look for vertical banks.