Exploring the Fascinating World of Ground Nesting Bees

Backyard Ecology™

Summary

Ground nesting bees represent a significant portion of our native bee population, yet they often go unnoticed due to their solitary nature and unique nesting habits. In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of ground nesting bees and how we can get involved in their study and conservation.

Today’s guest

Dr. Jordan Kueneman is a research associate in the Danforth lab of Entomology at Cornell University. He is also the creator of the Ground Nesting Bee project on iNaturalist where he is collecting observations of ground-nesting bee aggregations.

3 things you’ll learn from this episode:

• An overview of ground nesting bee biology, their behaviors, and their importance in the environment and potentially to some of our agricultural crops.
• An introduction into how much we still don’t know about ground nesting bees, including the answers to what would seem like fairly basic questions.
• How individuals like you and I can help researchers learn more about ground nesting bees and where they can be found.

Bonus content:

• Tips on how to identify ground nesting bees

Resources Jordan mentioned:

• Ground Nesting Bees iNaturalist Project
• Project GNBee website
• Instagram

Other Backyard Ecology resources:

• 3 Tree Groups That Provide Early Season Bee Food!
• Discover Your Next Steps

Thank you

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