can you get a close enough look to tell what they are? yellow jackets or bumble bees seem the most likely answers

Tonybeeguy, thanks for the response.

I don't think they're yellow jackets. They're fat, fuzzy and pretty friendly, not sleek and nasty like the yellow jackets I've encountered in my time. Even after I exposed their nest to the world (via moving the bricks) they came out to check me out, but didn't sting.

It likely that they are bumblebees. I've seen them nest in holes in foundations. Nest size usually only gets to a few hundred bees at most

Thanks Tony, that info helped a lot.

A few hundred we can deal with, I don't think that's going to destroy the house or anything. I'll leave them alone and thank them for pollinating my bean plants.

I've recently noticed a 3-inch whole in the ground going under my back wooden porch. Someone suggested they may be bees. But I haven't really seen many except the huge round ones that hover like helicopters around my 7 apple trees I have in my teeny backyard. Would they really make this big of a hole? Or is it more likely an animal...ick!

I just discovered same situation. They are ground bees. They like dry dirt and I was told to water the h*** out of them :)

PS they are not bumble bees!!!!!!!!

We have the same bees along our foundation near the patio. Our house was built last fall so it's a new colony. With the world wide shortage of bees I hate to spray them, but we can't sit on our patio and really can't eat or drink anything. I filled the area with water a few times, but seem to have multiplied. Too bad they aren't honey bees.

We have the same bees along our foundation near the patio. Our house was built last fall so it's a new colony. With the world wide shortage of bees I hate to spray them, but we can't sit on our patio and really can't eat or drink anything. I filled the area with water a few times, but seem to have multiplied. Too bad they aren't honey bees.