Furry and covered with pollen....

Bombus impatiens -Common Eastern Bumble Bee

DeepWoods wrote in post #19136102
Bombus impatiens -Common Eastern Bumble Bee

Hosted photo: posted by DeepWoods in
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forum: Macro

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Bombus pensylvanicus -American Bumble Bee
Conservation Status: vulnerable (G3G4) (NatureServe) - Bombus pensylvanicus
Vulnerable. Until about the late 1990s this was probably the most common bumblebee in the eastern and central United States, and it was often called "The American Bumblebee". It is now very rare or extirpated in the northeastern potion of the range west to about Illinois. New York and Vermont both rank it S1 as of mid 2014 but there have been none observed in several years. Even where it still occurs, such as in Arkansas (Warriner, 2011) and Illinois (Grixti et al., 2008), it is generally no longer the most common bumble bee, but it is not necessarily rare. Even more than for most declining bumblebees, the status, current trend, severity of threats, and prognosis for B. pensylvanicus are very unclear.
The use of pesticides and herbicides are contributed to the decline of this and many other species. i.e. Roundup, 2-4-D, other commonly used pestacides, etc. A majority of the "chemicals" that are sprayed on lawns and residential areas contain poisons that are deadly to these bees and 1,000's of other living organisms (including humans, a living organism)...killing the worlds natural ecosystem for the vanity of "looking good"

Hosted photo: posted by DeepWoods in
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forum: Macro

Not a message I like to read but thanks for providing it. And great photos!

Good photos but a sad story. Is there anything being done to protect it?

Lovely shots.

Brian V.

Pippan wrote in post #19136105
Not a message I like to read but thanks for providing it. And great photos!

Thanks Pippan!!

davholla wrote in post #19136162
Good photos but a sad story. Is there anything being done to protect it?

Thanks davholla! Not sure on the exact efforts being made to protect it but there are some being made by naturalist and conservative groups.

LordV wrote in post #19136386
Lovely shots.

Brian V.

Thanks Brian!

DeepWoods wrote in post #19136537
Thanks Pippan!!

Thanks davholla! Not sure on the exact efforts being made to protect it but there are some being made by naturalist and conservative groups.

Thanks Brian!

I think ordinary people could do something by planting food plants for it.
You really need very little space to provide food for pollinators. (My garden is very small but I do my bit) - sadly many people don't care - I even offered to give a friend a fruit tree for Christmas and not interested.

Neonicotinoids are serious problem.

https://www.pbs.org …cides-slowly-killing-bees

davholla wrote in post #19136591
I think ordinary people could do something by planting food plants for it.
You really need very little space to provide food for pollinators. (My garden is very small but I do my bit) - sadly many people don't care - I even offered to give a friend a fruit tree for Christmas and not interested.

Yes..if people would join the saving effort instead of the poisoning wagon it would really help. Thanks for all your efforts.

I have been totally organic on my property for well over 10 years. I grow 2 vegetable gardens and many varieties of flowers and edible/medicinal plants with no use of herbicides or pesticides and no man made fertilizers...I use a no till method of gardening, so my ground has not been plowed for over 10 years and I grow beautiful, healthy, great tasting, organic vegetables.
When uncaring humans have poisoned all these creatures and there are none to pollinate the food we eat...it will be too late, sadly.

Scrumhalf wrote in post #19136600
Neonicotinoids are serious problem.

https://www.pbs.org …cides-slowly-killing-bees

Yes they are.....but money is more important than what it is doing to the ecosystem and organisms

Lovely shots. Important message.

DeepWoods wrote in post #19136746
Yes..if people would join the saving effort instead of the poisoning wagon it would really help. Thanks for all your efforts.

I have been totally organic on my property for well over 10 years. I grow 2 vegetable gardens and many varieties of flowers and edible/medicinal plants with no use of herbicides or pesticides and no man made fertilizers...I use a no till method of gardening, so my ground has not been plowed for over 10 years and I grow beautiful, healthy, great tasting, organic vegetables.
When uncaring humans have poisoned all these creatures and there are none to pollinate the food we eat...it will be too late, sadly.

I agree entirely, what worries me is not so much no pollination but loss of beautiful creatures, possibly enough bees etc will survive for us.
However I don't want to live in a world where species of bees which are beautiful go extinct. - even if other replace them.
I photographed this in my garden Macropis europaea female
We could survive without it - it has only been in my garden since I planted its host plant - which is not needed by people AFAIK
However it is wonderful. For atheists a beautiful example of evolution, for theist a beautiful creation of God (sadly a bit overblown).

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jmd​nkr

davholla wrote in post #19137042
I agree entirely, what worries me is not so much no pollination but loss of beautiful creatures, possibly enough bees etc will survive for us.
However I don't want to live in a world where species of bees which are beautiful go extinct. - even if other replace them.
I photographed this in my garden Macropis europaea female
We could survive without it - it has only been in my garden since I planted its host plant - which is not needed by people AFAIK
However it is wonderful. For atheists a beautiful example of evolution, for theist a beautiful creation of God (sadly a bit overblown).

It is still a much needed species, as research shows, they pollinate many different flowers/plants therefore making them a crucial element in the eco system..
"Mainly monolectic on yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris), collecting both pollen and floral oils. The bee may also obtain pollen from gypsywort (Lycopus europaeus)(Cowley, 1951) and buckthorn (Rhamnus sp.) (Spooner, 1931), though these require confirmation......
In addition to the forage species listed above, the bee has been observed visiting (as nectar sources) bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.), tormentil (Potentilla erecta), agrimony (Agrimonia sp.), great willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum), hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium), mint (Mentha sp.), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense), knapweed (Centaurea sp.), rough hawkbit (Leontodon hispidum), sow-thistle (Sonchus sp.), water chickweed (Myosoton aquaticum) and water-plantain (Alisma lanceolata)." ref: https://www.bwars.com …ittidae/macropi​s-europaea

DeepWoods wrote in post #19137218
It is still a much needed species, as research shows, they pollinate many different flowers/plants therefore making them a crucial element in the eco system..
"Mainly monolectic on yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris), collecting both pollen and floral oils. The bee may also obtain pollen from gypsywort (Lycopus europaeus)(Cowley, 1951) and buckthorn (Rhamnus sp.) (Spooner, 1931), though these require confirmation......
In addition to the forage species listed above, the bee has been observed visiting (as nectar sources) bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.), tormentil (Potentilla erecta), agrimony (Agrimonia sp.), great willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum), hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium), mint (Mentha sp.), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense), knapweed (Centaurea sp.), rough hawkbit (Leontodon hispidum), sow-thistle (Sonchus sp.), water chickweed (Myosoton aquaticum) and water-plantain (Alisma lanceolata)." ref: https://www.bwars.com …ittidae/macropi​s-europaea

Thanks for that, however even if species x were economically useless to people we should still keep it. After all, I am pretty sure that if the Mona Lisa were destroyed it would not have a significant effect on most people's bank balances. However it would be a great cultural loss, we should not just look at species from an economic point of view but that they are really important in themselves.

davholla wrote in post #19138134
Thanks for that, however even if species x were economically useless to people we should still keep it. After all, I am pretty sure that if the Mona Lisa were destroyed it would not have a significant effect on most people's bank balances. However it would be a great cultural loss, we should not just look at species from an economic point of view but that they are really important in themselves.

Exactly...see my first sentence in prior post...

DeepWoods wrote in post #19137218 (external link)
It is still a much needed species, as research shows, they pollinate many different flowers/plants therefore making them a crucial element in the eco system..

Wonderful images, all too common story. I just can't believe the crap we spray. I spent about 10 years of my life working on the grounds crew for a private country club. The chemicals used in that industry are incredible. My boss & I would go back & forth about the chemicals, "They're perfectly safe, or they wouldn't be allowed." The problem is we don't know how bad they are until it's too late. These chemical are changing constantly because after 5 or 10 years of use they are determined unsafe. So, applications that were "safe" in 2000 are now illegal because of how toxic they are. I know golf is a very popular sport, in fact I make money covering it, but golf courses are one of the biggest contributors to chemicals ending up in our water supply. It just blows my mind that I still drive through my neighborhood & see people spraying round-up everywhere with their children & pets playing in the yard.

I'm not trying to say that "macro photography can save the world", but I can say people have a different outlook on "bugs" when they get to see just how cool & colorful they can be, especially kids. My wife was absolutely terrified of spiders, now I have 2-3 jumping spiders in our house at any given time!