There are no tents; just leaf damage and lots of it. There are tent caterpillars in the area, of course, but they seem to come on later in the summer. Maybe these are young caterpillars? They're, at most, 2" in length. They also don't seem as fuzzy as the tent caterpillars I've seen.

I just came across one crawling along a big leaf of swiss chard (no evidence of munching). I just relocated him to the back of the garden and let him be. I've rarely run across more than one or 2 per season (the sandy coloured one and/or the black with brown band in the middle guy), so I don't see their numbers as too threatening. I googled what they'd look like as adults and have never seen the adult virginian moth, maybe once came across a tiger moth. As for those numerous white cabbage butterflies flitting about all over the place, whenever I find a green slender caterpillar (and I suspect that is their larvae form) I 'rub' them out. As often as I do that, it doesn't seem to affect their population the following year!

lol... take my pick from which? I don't see any orange caterpillars, sure, the words are there but not together (ex. the painted lady is orange.... caterpillar is black) or something like that... or maybe "black with orange spots" so really there aren't any hairless orange caterpillars there (and don't try using quotes because nothing comes up)

It's not totally unusual for an insect to become disoriented and lay eggs in places they shouldn't. I've seen lots of eggs on the siding of homes, on screen doors and windows, etc. WHO KNOWS why? Not me, that's for sure. Thanks for posting your pictures and your story. It reminds us that there are exceptions to every rule concerning any living organism.