Support your local bees — even if they are in your lawn
John in Silver Spring writes: “Ground bees have taken over more than half of our lawn, and are really making our new next door neighbors panic. I do not want to kill the bees as I know that they are beneficial, but how do I resolve my neighbor’s panic issues?”
Well you can start by having the neighbors watch as you walk into the middle of the bees while they’re at their most active to show that these super-beneficial ground-nesting native bees don’t sting. (The males don’t have stingers and the females, being female, know better.)
Now, it would be different if this were late summer and they were yellowjackets. Those ground-nesting WASPS are dangerous to the max. But ground nesting creatures that look like bees in the spring are non-stinging, non-aggressive pollinators that are our best hope for human survival as imported honeybee colonies keep dying off. (No bees, no food
