Cornell professor of entomology, Bryan Danforth, and his research assistant, Henry Steig, are walking slowly through Webster Union Cemetery, eyes to the ground, when Danforth sees it.

A cloud of dozens of bees, swirling and darting close to the earth.

"Whoa, look at this! We did not waste our time," Danforth told Steig, who is an undergraduate at Cornell studying entomology.

They were in Rochester last week to put a theory to the test. Their question: Are graveyards natural gathering places for ground-nesting bees?

What brought them here was a remarkable discovery at East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca in 2022: an aggregation of bees thought to be among the largest in the world.

"In a one-and-a-half-acre area of that cemetery, there were 5.5 million bees coming out of the ground," Danforth said.

Cemeteries are ideal nesting sites because of their well-drained, sandy soil, low foot traffic, low pesticide use, and abundance of wildflowers and trees, according to the researchers. And these species are hard-working pollinators drawn to wildflowers, crops, and fruit trees.

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4 hours ago, Elmira Telegram said:

" Danforth said cemeteries are ideal nesting sites because of their well-drained, sandy soil, low foot traffic, low pesticide use, and abundance of wildflowers and trees, according to the researchers. And these species are hard-working pollinators drawn to wildflowers, crops, and fruit trees.

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Hard working for sure, but mean AF. I wonder if they check for those things being nearby when they are interring remains of people. A million ground bees being disturbed during a funeral could be pretty ugly.

Edited June 3Jun 3 by KarenK

4 hours ago, KarenK said:

A million ground bees being disturbed during a funeral could be pretty ugly

Or pretty damned funny!

I just saw something that said it’s possible this colony had gone 200 years without being disturbed.

Hopefully with all of the publicity it’ll remain so.