Sad that it’s officially turning the leaf over to fall but it’s a welcome change. It’s fair season! The farm events all over the place are one of my most enjoyable times of year. They have all kinds of excellent food and things like that.
As for bugs and plants - plant some smelly herbs! Lavender, basil, and one other one that slips my mind all help, supposedly, with keeping mosquitoes at bay. Give it a whirl, if nothing else you get fresh herbs!
True, fall has its nice sides, too (just not all the pumpkin spice craze everywhere)
We do have basil (and rosemary) in our front, the balcony only gets a sliver of sun during a brief time window per day, so unfortunately not good for basil. We used to have mint in with the purple flowers, you know how mint usually takes over everything? And in prior year both of them fought it out equally, this year the mint gave in and died.