Insects living in rusty flashing

I wish that I took pictures of all the insects that came crawling out of this old chimney flashing. There were centipedes, millipedes, spiders, large water bugs, beetle bugs, stink bugs, lady bugs and some species that I could not identify.

I did get a shot of the little guy that came to eat some of the insects though. He followed me all around the chimney as I was doing the flashing. I think he could supervise a flashing job now. :laugh:

I had to kill several hornets as well. They are known to eat other insects and were not too happy about me destroying their feeding spot.

I don't have a pic of the top but it has two clay stacks coming out with sloped concrete that appeared to be in good condition.

Both stacks are covered with a nice stainless steel bird/squirrel cage with 4 sided hip roofs on top.

There were a couple holes in the brick mortar on the sides that I repaired along with the flashing work but all the rest of the mortar passed the scrape test that I do with my nail bar.

What does the crown of the chimney look like?

Any ideas on what caused the old flashing to rust on the inside so much?

There was no rotten wood around the chimney but there was dampness trapped between the brick and the inside of the flashing.

The house is isolated in the country side and stays in the shade most of the day.