Carpenter bee? Looks like a giant bumblebee but has a shiny butt. Bumblebees have a fuzzy one. Paint is a deterrent.

Ditto - they usually don't do enough damage to warrant any kind of control. And, you don't want to use chemicals to dispel them, do you? That would adversely affect your habitat for the butterflies. I'm putting Buford's link below so you can click on it to read it without copying into your browser. I just noticed it was an article by W.S. Cranshaw. He has published a book on Insects. I have that big ole book myself and it comes in very handy. I'd highly recommend it for ID'ing insects, common and not so common, in the garden. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: Buford's Link

Thanks. It seems like the right bug, although the description I just read puts then the same size as a honey bee and these are smaller. There seem to be about 5 of them and they are 'cutting' everything between the veins of about 3 plants on my porch.

Whatever it is, I think I have the same thing on one of my cherry trees. The leaves look eaten the same way. They leave the middle vein (and some side veins) alone on the leaf and just eat the green parts, and it's always on 1 branch. I'm guessing it's some sort of caterpillar. I was thinking of using BT but I haven't noticed any new destruction in a week. I just figured if it's not endangering the tree, I'd leave it alone.