I totally noticed too. We had a reasonably mild winter and a blazing hot dry summer (as you might have heard me alternately bragging & complaining about) and there are many bugs seemingly absent. We have had a ton of dragonflies, and within the past couple of weeks, an explosion of cabbage whites/yellows. No mosquitoes at all except the beginning of June. Besides the cabbage whites I have seen very few butterflies this summer.

Oh I had aphids on my salvia but nowhere else.

My mom and I were just talking about this today - I mentioned the lack of moths which I noticed because I'm crazy tear your hair out terrified of them. No butterflies nor grasshoppers. We have bees and the same explosion of cabbage butterflies. No aphids, but an overly healthy slug population - they are everywhere, even crawling up the side of the garage. And now that you mention it, no ladybugs. And no maple bugs, either.

I have noticed tons of wasps, yellowjackets, mosquitoes, aphids, cabbage butterflies and bumble bees. Only one of these is a good guy. LOL. But I live in the city which is sheltered and some bugs' populations can explode locally given the right conditions.

I think we've had a fairly normal year barring the first four months. May through August have been pretty typical for SK, with no extremes of temperature. 2009 and 2010 were both wacky years in different ways - maybe a lag effect is causing the shift in insect populations?

I don't know what part of the planet you guys are on but we here in Edmonton have had far more than our fair share of BUGS!!! Aphids so bad there is honeydew dripping off the vehicles, fences, decks and balconies! I have never seen such a bad infestation of aphids! And mosquitos!!!! Ants!! Spiders!! Grasshoppers!! Slugs!! Odd looking beetles!! But very few wasps, bees, moths, and not one lady bug that I have seen so far. Talk about ick factor!

Another Edmonton poster here, with lots of bugs. The skeeters came first, dragonflies boomed a few weeks later. We've got aphids (lots), bees, moths, wasps (fewer than previous years), ladybugs (also fewer than other years), a growing slug population, beetles, ants (more big ones and fewer small ones this year). The insects seem to be doing just fine to me.

I hadn't even thought of that til I read this post! I haven't seen one lady bug all summer, lots of the usual moths, wasps, bees, flea beetles, etc. Not to many butterflies either. I also thought I'd show you my morning visitor. They are just learning to fly and he ended up on my dining room window. Marg
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It's been a slugarama this year. I picked off about fourty last week.

Lots of aphids. The ninebark out front was covered in them. I've been spraying them off with water, but they just multiplied too fast. I finally bought some insecticidal soap last day and guess what - there were a ton of wasps eating the aphids. They actually made a huge dent - one half of the shrub was totally wiped out of aphids.

Tons of dragonflies. They've been feasting on the copious amounts of mosquitoes.

Lots of sawflies. They nearly defoliated a Winnipeg Parks I put in this year.

No rose weevils this year though - and no sign of the lily beetle ever since I caught two back in May.

We've had very few mosquitoes this year, which is perfectly fine by me. I never have very many ladybugs, and really wish there were more. The only time i ever see them is in the fall. Our cabbage butterflies have just started too (also fine by me), and i haven't noticed a lot of moths or butterflies either, but that's not unusual here either. We have a lot of birds and bats around.

I've noticed a lot of bees lately too. We always have a fair number, but the population seems to have increased in the past week or so.

I have had sawfly larvae on my roses too, and aphids on the apple tree, and there are ants like you wouldn't believe. Or maybe you would! :>

Marg, what kind of bird is that? The ones we have around here now are young ones too. This morning, the female hummingbird baby kept displaying in front of me - i think the message was "Fill the bird feeder, woman!" LOL

I'm not to sure. We have a swallow nest on the side of the house and when they hatched and flew away the House Sparrow took over. At first when I saw this one I thought it might have been an American Goldfinch because of the yellow on it but I think it may have been a young House Sparrow. Whoever it is, we have the chicks all over the yard, I have to constantly keep an eye on the dogs so they don't kill them.

Warbler of some type, I believe

Oh, me too, Shazam. Most of my cauliflower were despoiled before I realized what the culprits were.

Lots of mosquitoes and ladybugs here in NW Alberta, but only one or two police car moths this year Strange.

Gee, I didn't know we had warblers here! Thanks Pudge.

I posted the pic on the bird watching forum. It's a female American Redstart. Very pretty little bird. Marg

Thanks for the ID, Marg. I remember once catching a glimpse of something red here which may have been a redstart or a vermilion flycatcher. Never saw it again, though.

Oh yes a redstart is a type of warbler (I was thinking warbler too). I've seen them a couple of times around here but would not have recognized the female.