The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America's Bees Paperback – November 24, 2015

The book is well written and is organized in a way that makes it easier for a novice to find a bee. For example, you can look at all the bees that have more of a white color or bees that have really long antennae. Versus many other books that are organized by family and if you don't know what family your bee is in, it can be really difficult for you to look through all the pictures and find the one you saw.We've used it to help narrow down some of the bees that we've seen in our yard and really like reading about them in this guide. Interesting material whether you are actively trying to identify a bee or not!

We live in a once rural area increasing in suburban buildup. When we first moved to the area, there were so many insects, especially bee types I never saw before. At the time, I couldn't find a overview of what those bees might be. This is an excellent book for identifying the wild bees and even some wasps and flies that imitate bees in appearance. Picture by picture, close up, behavior, nesting and forage preferences, presented in an easy to read format. This is like a "dictionary" of bees. Almost an encyclopedia, but more compact. I so appreciate the in color photos. In these days, there is no excuse for sketchy line drawings. It's good sized paperback, heavy with information. I can now see, for example, bees that are called Sweat Bees, and Leaf cutter bees. Leaf cutter bees make cute moon shapes in rose leaves. I don't use any poison in my area, and they are welcome to the few leaves they nibble. These are all pollinators, and with the decline in honeybees, we need to encourage these bees, with very little effort--mostly by not fearing them, and leaving them "bee". This is the best insect manual I've seen, and is at a fantastic price. No one ever mentions how drastic the new fire regulations are for bees. Forage is removed, and the ground, where many bees, like bumble bees, nest, is pounded by weed whackers until only dust is left, or sprayed with poisons. It's desolate, barren, and lifeless. We need more compassionate weed abatement. The bees in variety and quantity have dropped drastically. But, I can still identify those that remain.

This book is an excellent source of informationIt was a little overwhelming at first. Also I had a hard time using their "check list" for identification because some of what they ask can only be found if the bee is absolutely still...or dead. But after a while it became easier. I discovered one of the naughtiest critters who visited my bee garden was in fact a bee! The Anthidium manicatum to be exact!! He was actually amazing to watch and was totally predictable in his behavior based on what the book said about him. Saw him body slam the Bumble bees and scare off the dragonflies. He patrolled and bullied and flirted with the females around him. I would not have known all this if not for this wonderful book. Fascinating!!!My kids have been collecting dead bugs all summer and we were able to study them more closely using the introduction to bees (which is 49 pages) to understand them more.This book is not designed for kids but is clear with great diagrams and exquisite photographs to add in identification and observation. My kids are 5, 5 and 8 and did not love it but loved the information I learned and passed onto them. So to me it is a teachers tool or designed for the more educated student.If you just want a short, quick reference with some cute honeybees and maybe a fuzzy bumblebee butt this is not for you. If you are serious about learning about these incredibly crucial partners in our ecology buy this book.

Fabulous pictures and so much great info. I didn't even know there are this many different kinds of bees out there. Instead of watching the news with my dinner last night, I read the bee book while eating. Now I'm going to buy a magnifying glass in order to be able to see all the details on the bees in my garden that the book shows. Please buy this book - you will just love it.

"The Bees in Your Backyard" (2016, Wilson and Carril, paperback) is a recent publication describing bees common to North America. Excellent photos, clear and detailed descriptions of known distributions, and helpful information about bee species habitats/behaviors/host-plants, etc. I really like the first chapter, appropriately titled "Introduction," as it provides nice side-by-side comparison identification tips in addition to a useful dichotomous key. Paid just over $21 on Amazon for a new copy of the paperback book. Happy with book, and recommend it for the price. It's a nice addition to my entomology resource library! For interesting, stand-aloe factoids about bees, go through the entire book and read all the orange boxes. Written for the general public, yet provides all the scientific jargon along the way, so is a useful resource for all who have any level of interest in bees and any other social and/or pollinating insects.