5.5 Million Bees Found Living Beneath an Upstate NY Cemetery

Did You Know There Are Over 450 Species of Bees in NY?

As we finally start to feel the warm spring weather, the critters and bugs are starting to come out of their winter hibernation.

This includes bees!

Did you know that here in New York State we are home to over 450 bee species? According to Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the most common bee species, 54%of the population, is the Digger Bee.

They're described as "ground-nesting, solitary bees" that burrow in the soil.

Other common bee species across the state include Lasioglossum, Nomada, Sphecodes, Megachile, Colletes, Osmia, Hylaeus, Melissodes, Bombus and Coelioxys. More common names for some of these bees are mason bees, wool carder bees and resin bees.

You can learn more about all of the native bees in New York on the Cornell CALS website. 

There are Over 5 Million Bees Living Underneath an Upstate NY Cemetery

While doing our research of local NY bees on the Cornell CALS website, we came across a mind-blowing story.

The Cornell University Facebook page recently shared a story about technician Rachel Fordyce who worked at an entomology lab at Cornell. While walking to work in the spring of 2022, she came across a large quantity of bees.

Fordyce was walking across the East Lawn Cemetery, on the Cornell campus, and collected some of the bees in a jar. The jar of bees was given to Fordyce boss,  professor of entomology in the College and Agriculture and Life Sciences, Bryan Danforth.

After taking a deeper look, they learned that the bees in the jar "revealed one of the largest and oldest recorded ground-nesting bee aggregations in the world."

They estimate that there are around 5.5 million bees within 1.5 acres, that's over "200 honeybee hives, and more than three times the population of Manhattan."

The post goes on to share that Steve Hoge, a researcher in Danforth's lab, shares:

Bee and Tick Forecast 2026

While we're on the topic of bees, we have to get into what to expect this year on the bug front.

According to several reports it's going to be a bad year for stinger insects and ticks.

Meteorologist Justin Godynick writes "so you think the bitter cold, and snow would limit bugs...but my beloved snow, actually protected the bugs underground."

READ MORE: Tick Season Starts Now in NY, and 2026 Could Be Brutal

As for the 2026 bug season, Godynick adds:

expect MORE THAN NORMAL, ticks and stinging insects this season.

Researchers also say that tick season 2026 started earlier than normal and that it may be worse this year than in previous years.