Not only are these great pics of the Bumblebees, but super picture of the Red Birds In A Tree - now I know why they call them that! So cute!!

Marj

I second the vote as "great" pictures, PopMama.

I was noticing yesterday how the bumblebee population has overtaken the honeybees. I hope that they coexist okay.

Don't try hugging a bumblebee! I inadvertently did that one cool, damp morning. The bee was in an awkward armload of flowers. Zap! I'm sure he really didn't intend to sting anybody but the emergency circumstances seemed to called for it ...

Steve

Awsome pictures! I love bombuses, and you are absolutely right, they are prolific this year! I had one that napped on my coneflowers, too, and just like you I thought he was dead, until he was awakened by a rambunctious little boy and promptly flew off. Then he came back and fell asleep on the same flower the next day!

As for "taking good pictures" the most important variable is the thing standing behind the camera (that is until a picture comes out bad, then you say "when in doubt, blame the equipment" LOL!) . Don't sell yourself short Mama, those pictures are great!

Our caryopteris are full of bumblebees and the sage are full of honey bees. Definite preferences.

I've seen more bumbles this year, too. They've all been the kind with an orange stripe on the abdomen, and they seemed to come in groups to the marjoram when it was in full bloom.

Great pictures!

Sorta related - thats 6" sq mesh, to put this in perspective.

Woah, david52, that looks scary!

Woah David! Too bad it's right by that window/door. I decided last year when I accidentally busted a nest open and didn't get stung once that wasps are my sprir animal haha. They just buzzed around me and let me finish working.

Those are bald-faced hornets, not to be confused with the yellow and black paper wasps, which are far more common and less aggressive. The hornets both bite and sting - they're pretty nasty - they defend their nest pretty aggressively, 10 years ago, my son kicked a soccer ball into a nest hiding in the shrubbery and we all got stung. I usually get one or two nests high up in a tree every year - usually don't notice them until the leaves fall. From mid-August until Mid-September, they can double their population and size of the nest. We quit watering the window box flowers 3 feet below this just as a precaution. I ended up emptying two cans of wasp spray on this thing, 3 days apart, and I think they've finally died off or moved on. After a freeze, the magpies demolish the nests and eat any eggs left. edit - got the wrong picture and don't know how to delete a picture. Top is the bald faced, below a yellow jacket.

Yikes, David! I'm sorry you are dealing with that. Love seeing the bumbles around, but hope the hornets don't appear around here.

Another, brand new nest just showed up, right at head-height on a tree. This one is only volley ball sized, so far. I an't find hornet spray in the shops anymore. There are, however, lots of great utube videos out there on fools with hornet nests.

I had a buddy who would use hairspray and mapp gas to get rid of hornets nests David... I'm sure one of his doppelgangers are one of those fools you saw on youtube lol.

I thought we had yellow jackets last year... turns out it was not. They were a solitary wasp that laid it's eggs in a chewed out tunnel in some rotten wood. They preyed exclusively on flies. They would fly out, buzz around, snatch them right out of thin air and kill them and bring them back to feed the developing larvae. I hate flies, much more than I hate wasps. I was kind of sad when the guys who came to lay down pavers dug up the rotten wood they were using for their eggs.

I managed to buy another can of spray, and nuked the head-high nest. There's another one near the top of the (useless) giant apricot tree, and that I'll just leave. Thats 5 large nests I've had this year - we usually get one. Reading up on the hornets, apparently they're our little friends in the garden, major predators on other insects, particularly flies. I dunno if thats whats happening now - usually this time of year we are inundated with flies, but there are very, very few this year.

short video clip on how to deal with hornets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhKkmpmVWGc