Monday, June 8th 2026

Snapping turtle wanders through the yard.

Smaller turtle than last year, did not see it dig or lay eggs.

While mowing the lawn I noticed little dirt mounds with big round holes in the top, like an ant hill but the holes were noticeably larger. Watched them for a little bit and noticed these bright, metallic green bees flying in and out of the holes. They appear to be Bicolored sweat bees (Agapostemon virescens).

“The bicolored sweat bee is a solitary ground nesting bee. Each spring the female will dig a tunnel in an open patch of ground. Off the tunnel will be several branches. After building her nest, the female will gather pollen, take it back to her nest, form it into a ball with a little nectar and place it in one of the branches before laying an egg and sealing off that branch so each egg will have its own “room.”

Although it is a solitary bee, the bicolored sweat bee will sometimes nest communally. In these cases, several females may share the same entrance tunnel but then build individual branches off the shared tunnel with each of those branches having additional branches for the female’s eggs. In many ways, this is similar to our apartment buildings where multiple families share the same entrance but the building itself is divided into multiple individual homes.” from Backyard Ecology

Bicolored sweat bee (Agapostemon virescens)