Great photos, Dirt!!
Hope you protected the SSS from the mantis!!

Mantis never moved while I was there.

Fortunately, I don't tend to have aphids on the goldenrods. I do have lots of other guests though


Some kind of "square-headed wasp", I think, maybe, hoping for another ID from the nice folks at BugGuide...


other wasps

the thread-waisted wasps just love the goldenrod


and a different kind of sand wasp, sweet as ever, with blue eyes


This message sponsored by Solidago, feeding insects all over North America in the late season(sm)

dirtdorphins said:This message sponsored by Solidago, feeding insects all over North America in the late season(sm)

ok, SOLD!!!!
I was on the fence because of the neighbors who already think I'm "weedy".
But when I visited the local Audubon preserve http://www.aswp.org/locations/... a few years ago, I was struck by how gorgeous the solidago and vernonia were in combination with each other....

SO tall and imposing for my city lot!

But you just SOLD me for next year!

Wanna share some seeds?
I can get it locally, but it's more fun to get it from a "connection"!

Your goldenrods are more in full flower than mine, they need a few more days here.
Awesome pics as usual.

A bee-like on the boneset -

Dirt that first photo looks like a dragon.

Jeez, Dirt, you are all up in those insects! That first one looks scary. I love how you can see the pollen on some of them.

Goldenrods are pretty awesome. We have some at MOSI in the Historic Tree Grove under the Henry Ford Sycamore. You can read about how Henry Ford and Thomas Edison teamed up to find out if Goldenrod could be used to produce rubber here (also click on the goldenrod link in the article to learn even more): http://lepcurious.blogspot.com...

Also, make sure people know it's not the Goldenrod causing their allergies; it's the ragweed. They bloom at the same time but Goldenrod is so much showier that people give it the blame. When I was in KY and WV last September, the pollinators were loving the Goldenrod. I was downing the Zyrtec and Allegra, but I know what Ragweed looks like so I knew where to place the blame.

I had a bee friend loving my Salvia 'Mystic Spires' and Porterweed. They grow right next to each other so it's like one-stop shopping. This was a big guy and he kept floating around. But it's like I tell the butterfly thread, "Just keep taking photos and some of them will turn out all right". Not all of us can be as talented as Dirt! Are the yellow things on the side its pollen pouches? I think I saw that in a nature show.



I don't know where the actual Cicadas are, but their shells are all over.

Dirt I love the wasp in your last set of photos!

Love the solidago series, Dirt!

My swarm! (from a couple of years ago) My neighbors wanted to kill them. I chased them away and called the conservation authorities who came and took them to a bee keeper.

Other insects in my gardens.

Yay Melanie & Jennifer!!

Yes. Melanie, those are pollen baskets.

great photos, everyone!
Love those pollen baskets!

Hi Jennifer!
Nice to meet you--so glad you got the bees saved!
Lovely to see your garden critters

Thank you!

Yeah, I can't remember what that first one is...someone, somewhere, posted a pic of a white one of those dragony lookin' things and it was ID'd, and I thought, cool--that's what that is! but now, I can't find it

Critter, you can get shorter goldenrods, too, and they're perfect in 'weedy' gardens trust me!

Yes Melanie, as Ann has already said, those yellow things are gobs of pollen and that means that your big guy is a big girl
and my secret is the same--I take lots and lots of bad pictures just to get a few too many to share with you all
here's a girl packin' a large load

and here's a guy who had been rolling around in the winecups and just decided to wear the pollen everywhere

Cool Dirt, I think that first picture of the dragon looking bug might be an Ambush bug... I had a nymph in my garden awhile back, remember? I never found it again as an adult...

Beautiful pictures everyone.

Love the pollen photos, Dirt!

Yes! That's it!
Thank you Christine!
Genus Phymata, in my area,...that is more a note to self, as I endeavor to learn, because googling ambush bug brings up cartoon characters