Bumblebee on some clover:

One of my bug eating Bird buddies:

Yellow-jacket looking for some bugs to eat:

I find these rose-slugs (sawfly larvae) all the time munching on blooms, leaves... This one is trying to get a tan...lol

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:

Hummingbird Moth:

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Very bad:

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Hey, I'm not Ugly:

Great post, Jim! Sweet kitty, and beautiful pics; beautiful, vivid colors.

Stanwell Perpetual

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Brilliant Pink Iceberg

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The Wedgwood Rose

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Sydonie, Damask Perpetual, wonderful fragrance

Wonderful thread, Jim!

Mermaid is very popular among bumblebees

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And this one is a Cajun Hibiscus 'Creole Lady' with couple of butterflies

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Don't do bugs! They creep me out, sorry. I did look at all your lovely flowers though.

That is the most unusual hibiscus I've ever seen, Marina. I love it!

Seil, I don't 'do bugs' neither :)))
Bees and butterflies are different.
This year I fell in love with so called 'Cajun Hibiscus' - they are so unusual!!!

Please take a look at a few that I grow now.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Cajun Hibiscus on Photobucket

Great pics! Thanks krista_4, the_dark_lady ! If you have pics and do not want to start your own thread, just post em here..

Seil,

Does not have to be bug pics.

Wowza what a fantastic thread and photos everyone! What a delight! and uhhh, hope everyone doesn't get too bored with my Russian sage, but that's the only plant they will visit besides the oregano. They even hate the Russian hybrid Mini-Spire. Folks DO NOT GET THE MINI-SPIRE OR BLUE SPIRE Russian sage hybrid. It's a floppy, messy, shapeless plant that does not attract honeybees-- a flagrant example of how hybridization can severely affect the honeybee-attractiveness of a plant.

My Angelina Jolie honeybees (foraging honeybees are always female) are targeting in on the RS like hordes of ninja-powered vamps, haha! If there's rains or thunderstorms usually the honeybees will completely hide for the entire day, but for the first time the honeybees are being extraordinarily daring!! They are actually venturing out as soon as 2 hours after the skies have cleared! Unlike carpenters or bumblebees, the wings of honeybees can suffer rain damage. By the way, honeybees that are very glossy like mine show maximum health and vigor and maturity. Whenever they rub against each other or are involved with fighting, defending the hive, they will show this glossiness. Dull colored honeybees can mean that overly young honeybees being shoved out too soon because the hive has been severely stressed by pesticides so they are forced to forage sooner than they should. Watch for these signs. I joined the beemaster forum for about 1/2 a year now, so I'm learning tons about them. The amount of stress and invaders honeybees face is dang scarey, lol! Honeybees have it TOUGH! sheesh!!! I'm also amazed by the number of people trying to be 1st-timer beekeepers too! I'd be scared stiff to do beekeeping with all the problems that the poor honeybees constantly encounter.

Here is my latest set of honeybee photos...

and the one that tried to Escape my Camera lens, lol!

Dark Lady, I love your Mermaid. It reminds me a little bit of the beautiful Springtime Hugonis rose. The bee you see flying is also a carpenter bee (you can tell by the shiny black back). The other one is probably another carpenter but its black back is shadowed by a petal so it's not exactly 100% definite, but I'm pretty sure it is. Another way to tell bumblebees from carpenters besides the black back is how strong, thick and long their appendages (legs) are. So cool on how the moth is like a reflection of the Creole Hibiscus- how unique!

Krista, I love your gorgeous Sydonie and Stanwell especially. And the Wedgewood is quite a lovely Austin, like a romantic floral that you'd see painted on a Wedgewood China Platter. I suspect that is one of the reasons for its name, hehe! Wow, looks like the carpenter bees are really having a fabulous time with the rose petals and the fragrance....I haven't seen as much carpenters this year as last year in my garden. Last year, Krista, I had agastache, and those are the carpenter bees' favorite flower....I dug them out to make room for more Russian sage. The Carpenter bees like my bee balm and the Lincolns too. They are like the bumblebees in not being picky.

Sadly, I have yet to see a bumblebee in my garden folks :(

P.S. Jim, the Lincolns are going crazy with 6" blooms again, Folklore is getting its second wind, plus other blooms are gonna crowd out Lumpy Thread No. III so I have to put your gorgeous little DD into my old thread with my camera experiments....since I have 2 more new DD blooms for the new thread anyway...

Bumblebee on Otta The Blue Bloom:

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Morning Glory:

This is one of my new roses from Hortico this yr, CRANFORD. Probably the only "bee" picture I've gotten all season.
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And here's a bad bug... katydid on LOVE & PEACE. I immediately flicked it off the bloom after taking this photo!
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Here's one of my echinaceas I got last yr. I think it might be called 'SUNSET.'
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And here's one of my gazanias.
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And this is one of this season's new "baby" CA scrub jays. She's very tame. Flies down close to me when I put their peanuts out. Some people don't like the jays, but I love them! I also have stellar jays, but haven't seen many of them this yr.
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Wow! Great pics sereana & Beth! Thanks everyone!

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All right... Now, when I calmed down after our brief 'adventure' with the earthquake, I am ready to post a few fresh photos of roses and insects :)))

Please enjoy,
Marina

Lyda Rose and somebody's plump butt
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'The Nun' with a visitor
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St. Swithun
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And, finally, Agriope Aurantia (female) that I spotted today on my 'Sir Clough' rose. This 'baby' is full 2" long!!!
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New photos are lookin' Good Jim!

Wowwwww, GORGEOUS ROSE AND HONEYBEE COMBO, Beth! Great to have a double dose of BOTH! The Gazania is absolutely stunning too. I am enjoying the colors of the echinaceas.

Wonderfully vivid photography Marina. I know many will go yeeeeeks, but I think that Spider is very striking and cool! Like a Lady GaGa Spider, lol! Those heels/boots on its legs, and the arresting stripings across the body adds for the extra Drama factor, haha! And it's really neat how the blue zig-zags of the web reflect the zig-zagging of its yellow stripes.

Neat pics Marina! Were in Central PA. and we felt the Earthquake here. It shook our house and tilted some pics we had on the walls.
Marina,
What was it like in VA more closer to the Quake???

Jim, we are about 30 miles from Mineral, VA (the epicenter). We were inside the house at the time of earthquake, vibration was pretty strong, so was noise, clatter of glass and dishes and kind of hum coming from under the ground.
I ran outside, the ground was shaky. It felt like a metro train was running underneath.
Very scary!

Yep, that would be scary...I think the 5.8 Earthquake was VA strongest so far.

The epicenter of Tuesday's quake, which hit at 1:51 p.m. EDT, was 3.7 miles underground near Mineral, Va., and about 90 miles southwest of Washington.

It was the largest in Virginia since a 5.9 temblor in 1897. The largest East Coast quake on record was a 7.3 in South Carolina in 1886.

A 5.8 earthquake releases as much energy as nearly 8 tons of TNT, about half the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

I seen this large bumblebee today so decided to take more pics...

THE END...lol

Hehe, as promised Jim I came right to your thread! Wonderful clarity of the photo, but that is a carpenter bee, not a bumblebee as you called it. Black shiny back! Any "bumblebee" with a shiny black back is a carpenter.

But that is wonderful how close up you can get. My honeybees are very skittish. I love the color and cheeriness of the marigold!

That is a great picture Jim to show the black shiny back. I didn't know about the black shiny back indicating Carpenter Bees Serena - I'll have to check and see what I get. Some of my bees are 2 inches long - they're HUGE!! It's funny to see the flowers bend with the weight of these heavy bees.

By the way how do Carpenter bees differ (not in looks but in other ways) from bumble bees and honey bees?

this is a great thread!!

Carol

I'm confused....lol...The bee I took a pic of today is one of many who hang out on our flowers all day.
We have another bee here that hangs in mid air all day, chases other bees, and bores holes in wood but they are slightly different. So i'm confused...

Hi, folks! yes, any bee with a black back is indeed a carpenter bee. There are a few different species of carpenter bees so that is why you get a range in size- from very small to HUMONGOUS, lol. Also another indicator Jim that yours is definitely not a bumblebee are the "abnormal" coloration of the eyes and the "fly-like" appearance of those eyes. Note, many carpenter bees do not! have the strange flylike eyes. They have different varieties of carpenters but always the hard-shelled black butt is a sure-fire indicator for a carpenter bee.The really huge ones that chase off other bees is just one type of carpenter bee. But yes all carpenter bees do indeed bore through wood. They do not "eat" wood, they just bore holes to nest in. This is also why they won't be devastated by the Lawn Treatment Sevin or Merit. They do not nest in the lawn or in the grass the way bumblebees do. That's why you see a huge number of carpenter bees, but bumblebees are a far more rare sight in comparison. People get them mixed up all the time, lol! Even I used to get them mixed up until June 2010, when I started all my research with the bees and joined the Beemasters forum, :)!

Serena,

I took a bunch of pics today and I see what you mean Serena.
The carpenter bee has a hairless shiny back and the bumblebee has a somewhat hairy fuzzy backend.

This great clear pic taken by someone else is a Bumblebee, mine are not so clear...lol:

Figured I'd join in! One thing I like about bee's and flowers is they are more interested in the flowers than me!!

Hula Hoop with a spotted friend...
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Bumble Bee under Souv de la Malmaison

Coneflower and a Bumble Bee

Possibly the biggest pest of all...my dog :)
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Bumble Bee...
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Yet again...another rose pest! Yes...that's a Knockout Rose..I hate to admit it, but I have 3 of them :)
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Haha, I love your adorable garden "helper". Is she a puppy?

My baby girl considers all roses "pests" because they rob time away from her. But I am lucky in that she is soooo gentle and careful around plants....

My Eluane says hello to yours!

Thanks! Yes, the one at the top eating the rose is a 8 month old Pomeranian/Chihuahua mix puppy named Juliet, and the one under the Knockout rose is a 2 year old Chihuahua/Rat Terrier mix named Rigby. Overall they're pretty good with not bothering them, but once in a while they get a little too interested a decide to take a nibble :)

Your Eluane is beautiful. I grew up with border collies, they are just sooooo smart!

TNY78,

Great pics! bugs, bees, and dogs...lol
How do you like your double pink Knockout??? We are going to plant one next year.

Butterfly:

Lvin Easy:

Outta the Blue:

Red Double KO:

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Mister Lincoln:

I was taking a picture of a single bloom on 'Lyda Rose' today when this little critter landed on the stamens :)
Is it a bee or some other insect?

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nice dark lady

I found a bumblebee in a rose bloom, asleep, when I shook the bloom, the bee buzzed very loud, turned on it's back and went back to sleep. I woudn't dare to shake a bee or wasp.

Great story inga007!

I got stung by a honeybee a couple days ago while taking down a morning glory vine. The bee was inside a flower and I accidently squeezed the flower with the bee in it as I did not see it.

Little artist

Loooove your butterfly Jim!!! Oh, Pelicanhead that is a fantastic honeybee shot!!! How in the heck is did you get yours to stay so still! My photos are terrible! I can never get my honeybees to stay still enough!!!

Marina, at least we can enjoy the photo for its gorgeous lighting and beauty and it's a great insect shot as well! The details of Lyda's petals and buds, and the veining of the leaves is very striking! The insect is a wasp. You can see the nice sharp detail of its abdomen and the ridging that segments it. It's cool too, Marina!

Honeybees have a very smooth oval outline to their abdomen, it always must have fuzziness and there's no ridging/indentations. The healthier and older the bee, the more glossy highlights you will see in the fuzzy fur.

Lol, Ingrida, you can shake a honeybee anytime! They are very shy and will just fly away!! I constantly am aggravating honeybees with my misaim with Eluane's frisbee. I even have to untangle my frisbee from the Russian sage which is loaded with honeybees. The only time they will sting is if you wrap your fingers around it or try to squash it with your bare hands, lol! Not so with yellowjackets! I have heard of horror stories about yellowjackets doing a chasedown, haha!

Yes, great pic their pelicanhead! Thanks for posting...