# My honeybees have competition!



## Dan the bee guy (Jun 18, 2015)

Amazing what is out there if we just look for it. Great picture!


----------



## Teal (Jan 30, 2014)

Lovely bee


----------



## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

Its hard for most of us to tell mason bees from miner bees, but its a pretty good bet it is at least a "solitary" bee.

Masons make nests in hollow stems or holes above ground, which they close off with mud (hence, they're "masons").

Miners dig holes in the ground like bumbles.

Consider putting up mason bee houses (or just bundles of hollow tubes or stems) close to where you've spotted them. Inspect back in a month or so and see if some of them are plugged up with mud.


----------



## Spur9 (Sep 13, 2016)

Phoebee said:


> Its hard for most of us to tell mason bees from miner bees, but its a pretty good bet it is at least a "solitary" bee.
> 
> Masons make nests in hollow stems or holes above ground, which they close off with mud (hence, they're "masons").
> 
> ...


I think you are right Phoebee - it is probably a mining bee.

https://honeybeesuite.com/mining-bees-are-wild-bees-that-live-underground/


----------



## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

Fun fact I discovered while looking up solitary bees. I had a great pic of a bee with a distinctive mustache. I tried to look that feature up to see if it helped identify the species. It did not. However, it does help identify the gender. Among solitary bees, it is common for the drones to sport mustaches.

Females, by contrast, tend to have much larger and more noticeable mandibles than honeybees do. Males lack the prominent mandibles.


----------

