Ants or bees or what?

Are these anthills/holes in my sideyard? I'd love to get rid of them and stop the invasion of moles in my yard. Presumably the moles are looking for the insects.

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Reply to
Eigenvector
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Reply to
J. Davidson

on 8/12/2007 3:06 PM Eigenvector said the following:

They look rather large. Too big for ants, too small for mammals. No dirt piles around the holes. Too many, too close to each other, to be openings to a nest. My guess would be Japanese Beetles, Locusts, Cicadas, or similar. Their nymphs buried in the ground coming to the surface before moulting into adults. Look for discarded skins nearby.

Reply to
willshak

I probably should qualify this with a location. This is Seattle. That pretty much rules out Cicadas and Locusts. But I was wondering about the size of the holes, and the proximity. Seems unusual for ants or bees to be so close together. Hadn't considered it to be a beetle hole. Thing is about the holes, I filled them in after a particularly vigorous rainstorm and they came right back two days later looking like someone had placed them with a drill bit. Japanese Beetles maybe??

Reply to
Eigenvector

Dig a spadeful of dirt and break it up on the groung. If its beetles, there should be pupae or grubs still in the ground. First, though, make sure it isn't bees. Just watch for a little while. No bees? Then dig.

Reply to
do_see

"Bzzzzzzzz" "Ahhhhhhh!"

Reply to
Eigenvector

hard to tell by the picture, but if it were digger bees, or ants also, I would think if you just sat nearby and watched for 10 minutes activity would be seen.

Lar

Reply to
Lar

Tried that, nada. Perhaps they're early morning or dusk creatures?

Reply to
Eigenvector

I'm no expert, but I don't think they're ants. I have some similar holes, and it's some other little bug that crawls in there (I live in NC, so it probably isn't comparable.) You've watched and seen nothing? I'd dig a couple up if it were me. But beware of a bee or wasp coming out :-)

Reply to
jeffc

[....]

when did you move to NC?

where did you move to NC from?

Reply to
Jim

Choice food for moles and would explain why you're not seeing them.

KC

Reply to
KC

Well I dug around in the dirt with a shovel and at the very least uncovered what WASN'T in the hole.

It wasn't ants, looked like large metallic green flies. They came barrelling out of the hole at a pretty good clip - one per hole, so I didn't get a good look at them. Might have been a wasp, but looked too burly to be a wasp. didn't have an obvious thin waistline - but again I didn't get a good look at them.

Reply to
Eigenvector

It may of been just an emergence of some sort of beetle or cicada type creature.

Lar

Reply to
Lar

From Upstate NY about 20 years ago.

Reply to
jeffc

thanks for the confirmation.

Reply to
Jim

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