Eric, I'm so jealous! I'm always trying to get bumble bee pictures, but mine never come out so good as yours. Nice. Thanks. --Joolz

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.

Honey bees will cover every single flower on holly, making it seem alive with the hard working insects. You can hear them before you see them. YJs aren't so noisy. You should be able to easily tell a honey bee from a yellow jacket by the lack of very bright yellow and black on the bee body and that fact that bees are fuzzier. Both of these insects and many more are nectar and pollen feeders and will be found on holly, which is very attractive to all manner of pollinators, but only honeybees gather and collect nectar and pollen in order to bring back to their hives, for storage and the feeding of larvae. The relationship between bees and hollies is legendary. I would certainly hope that they are allowed to continue their work unmolested. No need to be afraid. Yes, they mind their own business, lol!

Saw our first of the season big fat bumblebee yesterday. We are fortunate to live in a rural area where I don't think anyone manicures their lawns. But my husband does like to mow. We leave a wild strip adjacent to the vegetable garden to encourage beneficials and we also have areas that only get mowed once a year. Dandelions have just started blooming. Borage is a great herb to attract bees. I usually get a few plants to show up every year in a corner of the vegetable garden. I have to pull out some of it because the plants can get quite large. Flowers are a pretty blue and taste somewhat like cucumbers.