I have had questions about the insect population this year, too. I noticed early in the season, a noticeable lack of insect activity around my garden. (except for ants). When I was fretting about my butternut squash not setting any "fruit", I would go out and look at the blooms and rarely saw any type of flying insects visiting them. Ants would be crawling on almost every one but that was all.

Having raised kale for several years, I also noted an absence of cabbage butterflies around my plants. Normally, very early in the season, these guys appear and from there it is a fight to see who will get to eat the most kale. The cabbage butterfly LOVES cabbage, of course and anything in the family, which includes kale. Their caterpillars are voracious and until late fall, when they freeze (and kale thrives) the race is on for me to get as much kale as I would like.

This year I have more kale than I could possibly eat/use, even though I have fewer plants than usual. While the butterflies have appeared now, they seem much less abundant than in past years and their "young" have barely made a dent in the crop. Bees, of various types have also appeared now, no lack of flies, of course and always THE ANTS! I can't help wondering how much climate change plays into this or whether the spraying the city does for mosquitoes (has for decades) caused some shift in the balance.

I had lilies in my garden for years without any problem - then picked up a few more lillies while at a flower show and found all my plants were infested with these bugs. I use pick off and squash as the first defence - look under the leaves to find them and they need standing on to break their 'shell' . You can spray, but kills everything .... and I like ladybirds