Swamp milkweed pollinators observation 2026-08-14

Most of the flowers heads are gone. Makes me sad that there weren’t any bees today. The plant is covered in yellow aphids. There were two lady bugs patrolling the plant and probably feasting on the aphids. The flies were all over the flowers and other parts of the plants. Two adult milkweed bugs and two young ones. The nursery of milkweed bugs has moved on. There are also a couple dozen bugs hanging out under the leaves. I can’t get close enough to see what they are but by their silhouette from a picture I took I think they are lace wings of some kind and or hover flies which makes sense with all the aphids. Not sure if they were taking shelter because it was threatening rain or because it was dusky out with all the clouds and the sun going down. There was a grasshopper on a different plant in the patch. Also a dragonfly also hovered around in the area for a bit, think it was a delicate fork tail or another fork tail. It was so delicate looking no bright colors, took me a moment to even realize it was there and then it was gone.