Busy day on the Mums

[Les]

All these insects were feeding off the Mums today but as soon as the sun was off the plants they were gone, except for the moths.

[Jen]

Nice capture of many hungry critters 

[riverbee]

wow, great photos les!

what is:
# 3?  native bee?
# 4? long slender body, orangeish, and black with white dots and long antennae ?
# 10?  the green beetle? with black dots?

[Bakersdozen]

Les, that just shows you what an impact a few plants can have on Mother Nature.  When people ask what they can do to help bees and pollinators, our answer should be to plant a few bee friendly plants and skip the insecticides.  How many mums do you have in that planting?

[Les]

Baker....I have Mums scattered all around my yard, probably at least 15 huge plants.  I never got around to doing the second pinch back on them this summer so they got super tall and as a result, the first heavy rainy beat them up.  Instead of standing tall, they are kind of bent over but the pollinators don't care how they look.  I am slowly ripping out the perennials that do not provide anything for the pollinators and replacing with pollinator friendly plants.  I never spray anything, if the plants get bugs than so be it.

Riverbee.....I know #3 is a native bee but the other two bugs, no clue.  I did notice that the flies absolutely loved the Mums.