Photo Album: A Whole Lot of Digger Bees in Colts Neck, NJ
That's a Lot of Digger Bees
As you can see, there were hundreds of digger bee mounds all across the landscape.
Solitary Pests
Digger bees are solitary bees that live one colony per hole, but there may be many holes in an area creating digger bee communities.
The First Sign of an Infestation
The first sign of a digger bee infestation are little mounds of soil with a hole nearby and digger bees flying over the area. Female digger bees "dig" these nests into the ground that are about 1/2 of an inch deep.
They're Not Aggressive
Although the venom from a digger bee sting is strong enough to cause a severe allergic reaction in some people, they are very non-aggressive and usually only sting if they are being stepped on. In fact, a sting from a digger bee is a lot less painful than the sting of a yellow jacket!
Exterminating the Digger Bees
We're going to apply a granular bait to this area and soak every single digger bee mound with a liquid residual. Both of these treatments will rapidly exterminate the digger bees.