A pocket-maker. Most nests are established at various depths below ground, whereas a few others may be sited amongst plant litter just above the surface. Sladen (1912) found a queen occupying a sparrow's nest in a Virginia Creeper at a height of about seven metres from the ground. G.M. Spooner (pers. comm.) found a nest over 0.5m into a sandbank in Dorset, and another in a bird-nestbox, secured to a tree trunk in Devon. Cocoons are a lighter yellow than those of its close relative, B. ruderatus. Colonies are generally quite small, often producing no more than about thirty to a hundred workers (Sladen, 1912; Prys-Jones & Corbet, 1987). An occupied nest is illustrated by Alford (1975).
Rasmont (2008) reports that this species will utilise abandoned mammal nests and may, occasionally, occupy abandoned bird's nests.