I followed bumblebees around for a month trying to get a good photo of them. They would fly around all sorts of flowering trees, plants and weeds, but never land. Then one day the milkweed blossomed and they were all over them. They were so intent on the milkweed they didn't even mind me getting within a foot away...

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(I'm not sure how they feel about tomatoes though)

I think my bees might be carpenter bees. I have found myself ducking as they buzz me, only slightly smaller than fighter planes. :)

Tomatoes don't need insects to pollinate..just a little wind or gentle tap on the stem is enough to pollinate them..
squash, cucumber, do require our friends the insects..

I've came across a few while picking my squash on Sunday..
they do have a menacing look to them...just be careful while pulling off the squash..honey bees seem to have a calmer attitude, but them bumblebees, just flat out scare me.
You ought to see them around a flowering Jasmine plant..woooo!
Great Pic medcave..

Happy Gardening

I love the bumblebees...they hover like helicopters all day over the spirea when they are blooming....

Bumble bees will take whatever flowers they can get so they will stop at your tomatoes and they will dramatically increase fruit set (which is why commercial greenhouse tomato growers use them), but what really like tomato blossoms are little halictid sweat bees, which are about the size of a small house fly, (iridescent green or black around here).

little halictid sweat bees

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True enough, they are the main insect pollinators for tomatoes.

But I thought I'd just mention that those of us who save our own tomato seeds aren't that happy to see insect pollinators around our tomatoes b'c even though tomatoes self pollenize most of the time insects can facilitate cross pollination so that the seeds won't be pure.

But there are ways of getting around that and there's a FAQ at the top of this first page for those folks who want to save their own seeds and prevent cross pollination.

Carolyn

Love the Picture, Medcave!

Has anyone used Bonide's Tomato and Blossom Set Spray? They advertise it as "bees in a bottle" and is supposed to increase production and lower seed content in the fruits...

Those bumble bees are quite tame and won't attack unless you're too near a nest. Early on a summer's morning your squash plants will be loaded with them. Just reach right in and harvest your squash and they'll get out of the way. They're quite good pollinators. Now, yellowjackets, well, that's another story.

Thanks guys! Here's another (better imo) shot of one on a native sunflower...

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and one of those halicted sweat bees on a mimosa that spiced_ham referred to...

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Spelling correction: Halictidae or Halictinae.

Or just plain purdy if you ask me. :) The first time I saw one I figured that's where they got the idea for metallic paint jobs.

Here is a link that might be useful: BugGuide

Yeah, I know about the seed saving. :) I was thinking more of the electric toothbrush technique. These beasties are so huge that they'd shake your house off the footing if they landed on your roof!

For Blue and kt

Has anyone used Bonide's Tomato and Blossom Set Spray? They advertise it as "bees in a bottle" and is supposed to increase production and lower seed content in the fruits...

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That's not all it does and unless one lives in the PNW or a very long cool Spring area it isn't needed, ads to the contrary.

Whatever the brand name the active ingredient of Blossom Set stuff is a plant hormone that induces what's known as parthenocarpy which means that fruits set and develop in the absence of self pollenization or insect pollination.

So fruits develop abnormally and not only do the fruits have few to no seeds, especially early in the season, but the flesh can be mealy and fruits malformed.

Blossom Set was devised for areas such as the PNW where pollination is a known problem early on, but I know few of my friends in the PNW who would even use it.

The most used plant hormone is IAA ( indole acetic acid)

kt, there's no need to use electric toothbrushes. Blossoms self pollenize about 95% of the time when conditions are present for such pollenization, and if you wanted to you could just shake the plants a couple of times a day or whack them gently with a broom, which also helps to dispel any aggravation against the blossoms. LOL

Carolyn

I've grown quiet accustomed to bumblebees. They love the salvia in my front beds and are constantly buzzing around. They've never once stung me, even when I was planting another plant only a foot away from them.
I don't know what kind of bees you have, but the way you are describing it, it doesn't sound like a bumblebee. Bumblebees tend to be fat and happy, and not very fast.

I have lots of carpenter bee's and bumblebee's. The carpenter bee's
are kind of a nuisance ,but I know they are valuable to my garden.
They can pollinate the big flowers on squash, okra, hollyhock, etc..
When I get near their nest, they wizz by me very close, but I've
never been stung..Sometimes they are a pain in the butt, because
they get so close to you. They have me jumping out of the way
many times in the garden, but that's a small price to pay for the
pollinating they do. They were all over my blueberry blossoms the
last two weeks. Now I can see the yummy blueberries forming.

Carolyn...thanks for the informed response! I work at an independent garden center and we had a training session with the Bonide people...it was a very good overview of their products but when they described the blossom set spray as "bees in a bottle" I intuitively thought "Franken-fruit"...I now see by your explanation that my reaction was a correct one and will not use it...

Ok, another question about ginormous bumble bees. I have a ton of those wood digger bees around my porch, digging holes into it, etc., all of this happening very close to all of my plants, which are on the porch. Do I need to worry about them affecting the plants in any way or maybe attracting any type of harmful insects? Please let me know! =) Thanks - Steve