On Jun 1, 1:12*pm, "Mortimer" wrote:
I've been helping my girlfriend dig her garden, and we've noticed that we
are being plagued by bees which are attracted to the freshly-dug earth. Can
anyone suggest why they are attracted, and how to discourage them?

The ground is about 12 inches of non-clay topsoil, on top of large slabs of
sandstone and sand. Because of the need to remove all these stones, firstly
so there is enough depth for vegetables to grow and secondly so the stones
can be used for crazy paving, we are digging each row and temporarily
leaving a "cliff-face", until the next row is dug, with the rest of the soil
dug forward into the hole left by a previous trench.

It is the cliff-face that the bees are attracted to. They land on the earth
or the sand (more often the sand), sometimes crawling into crevices, but
never staying in one place for more than a couple of seconds. They seem to
ignore the loose earth that has already been removed. The bees are small
honey bees, not large bumble bees. We noticed it the last couple of weekends
when the weather has been very hot and sunny; previously there were no bees.

http://www.bees-online.com/MiningBee...tingWasps.html

alternatively, got any mines in your area?...... http://www.sandia.gov/media/minebees.htm