Save Bees


Elise Fog of Save Bees & Enlightened Bugs

Elise Fog

I’ve loved insects for as long as I can remember, and I think bees are especially amazing. I suppose originally I must have been drawn to their sweet, cuddly, fluffy appearance. But these days, what fascinates me most is just how many different kinds of bees there are out there, and how the behavior and lifestyle of each can be so different!

Just so you know, I created this website motivated purely from a personal desire to share information about bees with people. Specifically information that helps people help bees and other pollinators. Bees are often unsung heroes of our ecosystems, little appreciated even though we see the results of their pollination work everywhere, and depend on them for a variety of foods.

Bees are not some faraway animal that individual people have trouble helping directly… anyone truly can help save bees. There are so many actions that individuals can take that will help them, from planting flowers, shrubs and trees, to providing homes for ground-nesting and tunnel-nesting bees, to encouraging friends and family never to use pesticides, to buying organic (even clothing), to starting your own vegetable & herb garden (even balcony gardening)!…

Green sweat bee on California poppyI’ve been taking close-up photos of bees since 2008, and it’s through doing so that I’ve come to appreciate them so much more than I already did. When I have time, I love to sit and just watch them through my macro lens. Occasionally I get a photo that captures their personality or behavior or both, and I share these photos in-person at various events, as well as on my website. It’s so rewarding to see and hear folks’ reactions to these bee photos! I hope I inspire you to look at bees as I do, as well as give you ideas for the many ways you can help save bees.

Folks are amazed when they learn there are over 4,000 different types of bees in the United States (over 21,000 worldwide)! I’ve seen up to 15 different types of bees on an early-flowering heather plant in my garden.

To answer anyone’s lingering questions about the content I include, I’m not associated with any organizations other than very loosely with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, Oregon (to whom I've donated a percentage of bee print sales in the past, with some of my photos also featured in their comprehensive book Attracting Native Pollinators—a book I highly recommend if you're serious about creating a pollinator haven). The Xerces Society does a great deal of important conservation work nationwide, supporting large-scale, real agricultural change that benefits bees and other pollinators.

I’m happy to call rural Oregon my home these days (along with many native bees!), having lived in the bee-utiful Pacific Northwest for many years now. If, after reading this, you’re still curious about me, I did a longish interview in 2014 for the Capital Institute here: Seeing is Beelieving 🐝💛


See the bee photos!
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