Do honey bees ever build nests in the ground?
Lots of different kinds of bees and wasps build ground nests. There are a few varieties that look like normal honeybees. For example: Leafcutting Bees (from http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2143.html) Adults resemble honey bees, but are usually darker in color (black, dark blue, purple or green covered with white, yellow, reddish or brown hair) and have shiny blue-black bodies. These bees have two submarginal (closed cells in the front wings) and females have many long, stout hairs underneath the abdomen, forming a pollen basket usually loaded with pollen. Unlike social honey bees, they are solitary (no colonies formed) with a female nesting in the ground, in logs, in hollow stems, twigs or wood siding. They cut out oval or circular (dime size) areas, especially from leaf margins of rose, redbud, ash and other ornamental shrubs and trees. These cut out plant leaf discs are used to fashion thimble-like ce
