This is the smallest bee I've ever seen. I took a photo and came in the house to see what kind of bee it was. I learned it's a mining, digger or sweat bee. This photo is a close up of the bee on a cone flower. The bee is less than 1/2 an inch long. These bees are not aggressive and rarely sting. Their stinger is so small it can barely penetrate human skin.
These small bees are important pollinators of fruit trees and alfalfa. These types of bees dig a hole in the ground and lay their egg on a pollen clump. It takes the mother bee 6 to 7 trips to get enough pollen for one egg. When the mother bee carries the pollen to the nest it weighs half her body weight. These bees nest in lawns or sides of hills. They are only active for 4 to 6 weeks and then dormant till the next year. Some of these bees are nocturnal. Here is a link to a
resource for plants for these types of bees.
Please don't use pesticide on your lawn because we need our native bees for pollination. In fact if you can avoid all pesticides you'll be doing yourself a favor. We need all of our bees for pollination, without pollination we won't have many of our fruits and vegetables. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.
