Over the last couple of weeks, I have been admiring all the different insects in my milkweed patch. I’ve been seeing several newcomers with either orange and black or red and black markings. They are truly striking little bugs. They move quickly and are difficult to get a picture of.

Then yesterday I was walking down to my mailbox, wondering how all the Monarch caterpillars would fare with hurricane Florence headed this way- when I realized high winds were not their biggest threat. First I saw this:

Then this:

And this:

My first instinct was to squash them all, but I couldn’t do it. After all, even vampire-like bugs that eat cute caterpillars have to eat. I usually leave nature alone to do it’s thing- but in this case- I couldn’t resist bringing a few Monarch caterpillars onto my screened porch to eat in peace.