April 20, 2026
Buzz in the boneyard
Up to 8M Bees Are Living in an Underground Network Beneath This Cemetery
Internet battles “bee city” hype; locals say let them bee
TLDR: Scientists found up to 8 million solitary bees nesting under an Ithaca cemetery lawn, one of the largest sites ever recorded. Commenters clashed over “bee city” clickbait, clarified the bees forage above ground, shared the original study and video, and rallied around one message: protect this pollinator powerhouse.
A cemetery in Ithaca, New York is hiding a jaw-dropper: scientists say 3.1 to 8 million solitary bees are nesting under the lawn. But the comments? Absolute chaos. The biggest dogfight is over language: readers slammed the article’s “underground network/city” framing, insisting it’s an aggregation, not a hive or social city. One confused reader asked how bees “live underground” yet still feed, prompting the community to explain: these native mining bees nest below but pop up in spring to grab pollen, then duck back underground. Another camp simply begged humans to back off: let the graveyard bees live.
There’s also a mini media war. Critics dunked on the article’s lack of cemetery photos and demanded receipts, dropping the actual study and a slick video with slow-mo bee flights. Amid the buzz, folks marveled at the numbers—up to 800 bees per square meter—and the wild detail that “cuckoo” parasites sneak eggs into neighbors’ nests. Meme-wise, “Let them bee” made the rounds, alongside “Bee Movie 2: Graveyard Shift.” The vibe: awe at a decades-old pollinator hotspot, side-eye at clicky wording, and a chorus saying cemeteries might be the safest place for tiny hard-working queens of spring.
Key Points
- •Study in Apidologie reports 3.1–8 million Andrena regularis emerging annually from a cemetery lawn in Ithaca, New York, with an average estimate of 5.6 million.
- •Peak densities exceeded 800 bees per square meter, measured using mesh emergence traps deployed before spring emergence.
- •The aggregation may be decades old, with records indicating presence since the 1930s.
- •Parasitic bees (primarily Nomada imbricata) were present, but parasitism was low (~1.4%).
- •Cemetery stability supports ground-nesting bees; A. regularis significantly contributes to pollination of apples and blueberries, rivaling honeybee colonies.