How to Safely Get Rid of Ground Bees in 8 Steps

Pesky ground bees digging in your yard? It is important to know how to get rid of them fast, but also safely—we don’t want any bee stings to occur.

Because these insects are pollinators, you should, ideally, leave ground bees alone. But you don’t want the fear of a sting to keep you from enjoying your yard. The good news: there are ways to address the problem of ground bees.

Learn about eight of them below, as well as how to spot the signs that you have ground bees on your property.

3 Signs You Have Ground Bees

1. You see little dirt piles: As a ground bee digs out its nest, it deposits little piles of soil around the nest’s entrance. It is easier to identify them by these dirt piles than by trying to distinguish them from other bees.
2. You witness an unusual number of bees flying just above the ground: You are probably used to seeing bees flying around in the air—seeing them flying just above the ground is less typical. If you see bees flying low to the ground, they may be ground bees.
3. You notice bee activity around holes in the soil: Follow up your spotting of bees flying close to the ground by looking for bees entering or exiting holes in the ground: That’s your cue that you may have ground bees nesting on your land.

8 Ways to Get Rid of Ground Bees or Prevent Them

Luckily, there are a number of ways to solve the problem of ground bees, including preventive methods that allow you to avoid killing these valuable pollinators:

Reseed Bare Patches in the Lawn

Ground bees dig into the soil to build their nests. The digging goes a lot easier for them if there is little in the way to impede their digging, including grass. This is why they seek out bare patches in a lawn.

To thwart them, be diligent about reseeding any bare patches in the lawn as soon as you notice them.

Keep the Lawn Watered

Likewise, dry soil is easier for ground bees to dig through than wet soil. To that end, prevent them from making nests by keeping the soil in your lawn sufficiently moist.

Mulch Your Perennial Garden

The garden provides even more fertile ground for ground bee nesting than the lawn. There is no grass to block their digging in the garden, and well-worked garden soil has the loose texture that ground bees like. One answer is to apply garden mulch to block them.

Lay Landscape Fabric in Your Shrub Beds

Likewise, you will need to create a barrier between the ground bees and your soil in shrub beds. While mulching is also an option here, a popular choice in shrub beds is to lay landscape fabric.

Kill the Larvae

If ground bees are already present on your land and you want to make sure they do not reproduce, you can target their larvae. The larvae develop underground in the nests and emerge next spring.

To kill them, boil some water on the stove, mix soap in it, and pour this mixture down the holes that the ground bees have created. This will drown the larvae.

Block Access to Existing Holes

When you detect holes that ground bees have created, you can place a heavy object over them (such as a flat stone) to block the ground bees from re-entering their nests.

Once they see that they are unable to access their nests, they tend to leave and seek better opportunities elsewhere.

Sprinkle a Deterrent on the Ground

Like many insects, ground bees are repelled by certain smells—one of them is cinnamon.

Sprinkle some cinnamon on the ground where ground bees have dug their holes. They may leave to find ground that smells better to them.

Hire a Pro

If none of these methods work for you, or if you simply don’t have the time to implement them, the best solution for you may be to call a professional.

A knowledgeable pro will not only remove the ground bees but also make sure they don’t come back.