I haven't seen many either. Last year they were plentiful. Honey bees have dwindledin recent years, but the bumblebees seemed to be thriving. Now that you mention it, this summer the bumblers too seem to be MIA.

They're here, on my Walkers Low nepeta - gazillions of them - making it very hard to cut it back. Some of them even seem to stay on overnight, at least occasionally.

If you or your neighbors are using Sevin or any of a dozen or so pesticides, they're toxic to many polinators, not just honeybees. Other than that, I haven't heard anything about problems like honeybee "colony collapse" in bumblebees.

There at my house. They're all over my Nepeta and Agastache.

I have lots of them here, the love my roses and the clover lawn

I garden organically and I see more Bumblebees than anything else. I have seen a shortage of Honey Bees, but have had lots of Bumblebees. Nepeta Walker's Low, clover in the lawn. Penstemon too.

Last year my garden was swarming with both honeybees and bumblebees - but I've noticed a significant difference this year. My calamint is just starting to bloom and that is their biggest attraction here, though, so I was going to see what happened once those got going.

I have clover all over the yard
I also have to large areas with uncut grass about knee height
still no bumbles.

I do have butterflies though.
They love the Butterfly Flowers.
Right now I have lots of tiger lilies in bloom in the yard, lilies, and loads of coreopsis.

My earlier flowers disappeared so fast with how warm it's been. I wonder what's going on.

I use moo doo, peat moss, vermiculite, leaf mulch. I have organic fertilizers. I won't put miracle gro on my vegetables.
I do use miracle gro once in a while on plants not often.

In the past I have used something to kill poison ivy. Specifically along the road and very much controlled only on the leaves using cardboard to guide it.

I really doubt if my neighbor uses anything like that.
She is against killing the poison ivy.

It's sad to go from so many to not seeing any at all.

I haven't seen any in my yard. All I've seen so far this year is one wasp...We used to have tons of bumble bees all around my house. Not anymore.

There is evidence that beekeepers feeding HFCS to their honey bees caused colony collapse, so it wouldn't affect bumble bees. Apart from periodic spraying for wasps in my attic and barn, I don't use any pesticides, so it must just be that nothing that would attract large numbers of bumble bees is in bloom right now.

I've also noticed Liatris is just starting to bloom and the bumblebees are enjoying that too. I have parsley blooming right now and it has all these little tiny bees all over it.

It has been a very strange season, a very dry early summer and recently very hot. It could just be population anomoly, related to weather, temp, plant food availibility. It is way too early to panic.

Panic never solves anything, for sure, but awareness of a problem so you can help with a potential solution is usually better to have earlier rather than later. 'A Stitch in Time' and all that. I'm happy to see a fair amount of bees this year, but there seems to be a trend to lower populations in my garden. I've heard others reporting the same thing. Seven years ago, my full sun garden was so covered in bees and wasps that at some times during the day, you might want to keep a wide berth when you passed by it. I doubt I have half that population this year and this year is better than last year.

Monarch butterflies, I've heard had a freeze in their winter location and estimates are that 75% of them died. I've seen 2 Monarchs so far this year. I wonder if that has ever happened before.

I'm not worrying about it, but it does make me more interested in looking for ways to attract bees and butterflies and to offer them habitat as much as possible.

Due to this thread, I am keeping a closer watch out for the bumbles. I saw 2 on an Echinacea today, and have seen one here and there, but perhaps there are fewer than usual?

Too early to tell, but when some of their favorites start blooming (i.e. Actaea racemosa, Agastache foeniculum) then I will guage the situation further.

PM2, I haven't seen a single Monarch this season yet, but it's nice to know you've seen a couple and my sister up in Pepperell saw 3 last week.

Yes, very very few butterflies of any stripe (or blotch) The cabbage moths are plentiful. Truly, I am not trying to minimize the loss of bees. I just remembered what a horrible year it was for bees last year. It rained for about two weeks straight and was rainy off and on for more weeks. Two things happened: the nectar flow was delayed substantially, and wasn't available for honey making during the most important part of the season. Many beekeepers around here had no honey crop at all...or at least to sell. I want to check this out with someone else...I don't want to make up stories....but these conditions could have affected how much brood was hatched successfully or the strenght of hives going into winter which would affect how many bees died over the winter. There are always losses in this climate. If the beekeepers have to start all over with new colonies in the spring perhaps there we observe fewer. This is speculation on my part, but I'm trying to expand on the point about "natural" fluctuations in any insect and animal population

terrene, I saw a couple of Monarchs float through the yard earlier in the spring. I saw a small little butterfly yesterday. I'm not good at identifying any but the most common, but it was orange color with small markings and maybe as big as a half an inch . I've also seen more cabbage whites as idabean mentioned too. I was thinking that once the butterfly bush is blooming I will be able to tell better, because I usually don't see a lot until then. I have one open bloom on mine right now, which is early for me. I didn't realize they like Agastache. I'll have to notice this year.

Idabean, you do have a point about how bad the weather was last year and I'm sure that does have an effect. I guess my thought is that the weather is changing because of global warming in ways it shouldn't be and if it keeps up, that will continue to have an increasingly negative effect on bees and butterflies, and us.

I would love to keep a hive like you're doing, but I just couldn't. I'm not sure I'd have enough flowers in my garden to keep them going either. I suppose there might be enough in the area though. I'm trying to put up houses for mason bees instead. I put one up from Gardener's Supply this year and it didn't attract one bee. I was told on the Bee forum it's not the right kind so I may try a different one next year.

Maybe we should have a Bee count. [g] You know, like they have a bird count every year. I cropped a photo of my thyme and found this little guy....

What kind of butterfly is this?

another kind?

I have these in bloom in the yard I believe bumbles like.

The first is a tiger swallowtail. Really nice shots of this beauty.

The second one I can't remember. I collected butterflies as a kid and used to know them all, but that was long ago and far away.

I just came in from a garden check and found honey bees and bumble bees, especially on my asclepias. It is a plant I got at the garden swap last year and I have to say, it is now my favorite plant! I am going to try to divide it next year so I can spread it through my white border. The border would be in a lovely creamy white continuous bloom right now between the asclepias, the astilbe and the day lilies.

OK the 2nd (smaller) butterfly pictured finally came to me with a little review. It's a red admiral (similar to a painted lady, and I think of the same family, but with distinctive horizontal orange stripes on its upper wings.)

yep - Red Admiral is the 2nd butterfly...do you have nettles growing in your yard? That's their caterpillar food plant. I don't really like stinging nettle for obvious reasons but I always leave a couple of patches in an out of the way place and I see the RAs every year...

Funny, I was thinking that this year I'm seeing more bumblebees than usual, and wondered if it was due to the warm spring and summer we've had...I'm also noticing some of other cool bumbles such as green metallic sweat bees and leafcutter bees...

re: PM's bee count...hey, that'd be fun and no more strange than the MA Butterfly Club who does butterfly counts all season long :-) The trouble is my ID of bees is woeful - but then my excuse is that there are probably thousands of species alone in MA...

I tried it this afternoon, but it was too hot to stand around long. I did count 15 honeybees and one Bumble on my thyme plant at one time. I found it difficult to count bees. If they would only stand still. [g] I did see a big wasp with orange legs and a small black wasp on the parsley. There was one small butterfly out there landing on the echinacea.

Here's my golden thyme.....

and a close up of a couple of the honey bees....

I didn't know that about nettles and red admirals, Ellen. Live and learn!

The butterfly photos are not mine, but I live in the same state as the person who posted them (altho probably some distance away from each other, judging from our posted climate zones.) I also have multitudes of butterflies, including the two varieties pictured above.

I do have stinging nettles aplenty as well, despite my best efforts to remove them. I probably need not leave the red admirals their own patch; many nettles always survive my weeding efforts.

PM, I love Golden Thyme too...it really pops as a groundcover around other stuff. the honeybees seem to be enjoying yours :-)

our gardens are buzzing with pollinators of all sorts right now....bumbles of all size plus honeybees and hoverflies (they look like tiny bees) by the hundred...everything especially seems to like my New Jersey Tea shrubs which are in full bloom right now...

Hi Ellen :-) Yes, it really does pop and mine is so vigorous and dependable for a thyme. I imagine yours is too. I have clay soil so this is planted along the edge of a slightly raised bed and it does great.

I usually see a few hoverflies when the butterfly bushes are blooming, none so far. I saw a Swallowtail butterfly out there today.

Ellen, I almost bought a New Jersey Tea. I would love to see a photo of yours. How is it doing in this heat with no water?

Ellen and PM2, I am bummed because I wintersowed Ceanothus americanus last year and had at least a dozen seedlings - none of which made it thru the winter in pots. :(

There seems to be more Bumblebees around than several weeks ago. They are on the small size and I haven't seen any Carpenter bees yet this year. Lots of honeybees though, which isn't surprising because the local farms have hives.

Ideabean makes a good point about the terrible summer weather last year possibly reducing the over-wintering population of some pollinators.

I Saw One!
I had one bumble on my vegetable garden.

First one I've seen in 1-1 1/2 months.

PM, I'll try to post a pic of my NJ Tea in the next few days, but I have been very impressed with its performance. I have not once watered them since I planted them about 2 or 3 yrs ago. They are in lean soil with good drainage, the driest area of my whole property too. They bloom their heads off with white frothy flowers! I'm perplexed why it's not a more popular landscape shrub...

Terrene, I also winter sowed them too but I am pretty sure I planted them directly into their eventual planting spot at the end of their first season. Worth another try maybe?

Great Ellen, thanks. I think they are very attractive and when I was doing over my back garden, I was shopping natives and that was on my list but I couldn't find one. So those in your garden were wintersown? Do they have any color in the fall?

Sorry if this is getting a bit off topic, but I asked about the NJ Tea because they attract bees so well for Ellen. Back to your 'regularly scheduled program...' :-)

PM - I am having trouble with my photo hosting service right now, but my pic of New Jersey Tea taken at Garden in the Woods in Framingham MA is on the following web page (scroll down til you see Ceanothus americanus listed)

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/2010/Native-Plants-for-Pollinators.aspx

Definitely one of my top plants for attracting a variety of pollinators!

Here is a link that might be useful: NWF - Plants for Pollinators

Ellen, that is a pretty pic and a great link. Yes definitely going to try again. Would have done that this year, except I didn't know they wouldn't come back! Only problem with planting them straight out as seedlings, I already have "holding beds" with about 50 shrubs/small trees in them, most of which have been there for 2-3 years now. They are no longer seedlings, a few are over 6 feet tall and desperately need to be planted to their permanent spots, which have not been ready. Guess you could say I have a little problem with wanting to grow more things than places ready to plant them. :)

As for bumblebees, I am definitely seeing more of them as the summer progresses.

Yes, great link and I liked the photo of the New Jersey Tea. Thanks Ellen!

I'm seeing lots and lots of bees and wasps and more and more butterflies too.

terrene, I have the same problem with my holding beds (snicker snicker), they end up permanent beds....it's tough being a plant addict lol