Probable tree bumble bees in hole in the ground, but what made the hole?

[Amari]

A neighbour showed me an untidy hole, about the size of small football, which appeared overnight in his garden. Flying in and out of the hole were small bumbles with white bums and a single orange band on the thorax. I think they are tree bumblebees, Bombus hypnorum. The grass all around the hole had been flattened.
My thinking is that a badger started digging out the bumble nest. There are said to be badgers in the parish but my neighbour and I have never seen one. No foxes recorded. Occasional rabbits.
Do tree bumbles make nests in the ground? - over recent years I've had several call-outs to these bees in bird boxes and behind soffit-boards etc.

 

[Murox]

My guess about the hole would be a dog. Two of mine follow their noses and make small scrapes like that quite often in rough areas - and in the grass in the back garden!!

 

[JamezF]

Doesn't look inconsistent with a badger to me.

James

 

[Amari]

My guess about the hole would be a dog. Two of mine follow their noses and make small scrapes like that quite often in rough areas - and in the grass in the back garden!!

Unlikely as they don't have a dog

 

[user 819]

Not tree bumble bees, TBB's are ginger.
They look like Bombus terrestris to me as the yellow banding is darker then that of Lucorum, these two are the common bumbles with the single thorax and abdomen yellow banding. The hole was likely a rat or mouse hole originally but has since been noticed and dug out by another mammal so a badger is possible.

 

[Ian123]

Badger…… they go looking for the nests and dig them up.

 

[Pembroke]

https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/tree-bumblebee-bombus-hypnorum/

 

[Blunt Spike]

Where's the soil gone? Keep an eye out for soil dropping out of strangers trouser legs as they try to dispose of it unnoticed!

This is the new way into England. Forget the small boats they've dug tunnels!

 

[Amari]

https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/tree-bumblebee-bombus-hypnorum/

Brilliant article - thanks

 

[Aneebe]

A neighbour showed me an untidy hole, about the size of small football, which appeared overnight in his garden. Flying in and out of the hole were small bumbles with white bums and a single orange band on the thorax. I think they are tree bumblebees, Bombus hypnorum. The grass all around the hole had been flattened.
My thinking is that a badger started digging out the bumble nest. There are said to be badgers in the parish but my neighbour and I have never seen one. No foxes recorded. Occasional rabbits.
Do tree bumbles make nests in the ground? - over recent years I've had several call-outs to these bees in bird boxes and behind soffit-boards etc.

Bumbles will seek out mouse holes to nest in. Apparently they can detect the UV signature of mouse urine and use that to track a potential home. We have a lot of them doing this and thus nesting in banks, under hedges and this year, in my "no dig" raised beds! Badgers blooming wrecked several of the beds in their digs to get at the bumble bees. Similarly we had an ancient field boundary bank ripped apart. In each case, along with a scattering of bee corpses there was a pathetic little gaggle of bumbles hanging round wondering where home had gone.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bumbles in mouse holes here and wasps in mole tunnels

 

[enrico]

We get them in the field vole holes. Get them everywhere