We pressed cider this weekend. We've got a slowly dying red delicious orchard and a few new varieties[^1] recently introduced (and not yet bearing); it was a good year for the red delicious and even though most had fallen there were plenty of good ones we beat the bugs to.
I took a photo of the outlier; we were swarmed by yellowjackets while crushing (or maybe some other type of paper wasp) and we saw a few bald faced hornets when picking along with more yellowjackets, plenty of flies, some crickets, and who knows how many different kinds of grub. Everyone is so busy feasting they're never really a problem outside of, "wow that's a lotta wasps, huh?" I think this guy is a pearl-eye, Lethe anthedon, but it's so ragged and sunbleached and there's several very similar brown guys with eyes on wings in Lethe, so feel free to call me out if you have a better eye for brown butterflies in IL.
My mom, sib, and two niblings came down for this, which was nice--crushing cider is hard work when you're trying to make enough to reap the reward all year. We ended up with some 14 gallons total, most of which went straight into a chest freezer. We find that's the best way to preserve the most interesting flavors without falling down the rabbit trail of hard cider. Canning works well too, but the end result is more homogeneous and flat, like what you get from the store[^2].
[^1] a braeburn (which actually produced four excellent apples this year, nice!), a couple wolf rivers, and a granny smith (iirc). I'm most excited for the wolf river--they're pretty tasty eating but also considered a great cider option. I think their flavor will add a really nice balance to the red delicious.
[^2]but also with significantly more body. Since ours is 100% red delicious it also is far sweeter, since the stuff you buy usually uses tart juicing apples and probably citric acid to help preserve it.