I leave them alone until I just can't stand it any longer. Yeck............. Then I hose them off and wipe them off with my fingers, like Tdogmom. I have hoverfly larvae on mine right now, and no eggs yet, so I'm letting them do their job. They are eating a LOT of aphids. Aphids aren't near as damaging as milkweed beetles (not the bugs, the beetles). The beetles consumer the foliage and leave these ghastly black oily spots on what foliage is left after they've had breakfast. I try to find them and squish 'em. This is the first year I've had them, but I only started growing milkweed last year. In the drought, we didn't have much of anything except the aphids. This year, I've got plenty of bugs around. I caught a stink bug devouring a BST cat the other day. Too late for the poor BST cat, but the day was OVER for the stink bug as it was caught between the sidewalk and the sole of my shoe. Susan

Actually, believe it or not, this brilliantly colored, daytime active, thin bodied insect is a MOTH, the adult of the Ailanthus webworm, Atteva punctilla. The Ailanthus webworm is a sub-tropical insect that has spread north following the introduction of an "alternate" host plant, the introduced invasive species Ailanthus altissima, that has spread throughout North America. (Since the Ailanthus tree is not native to the Americas, while Atteva punctilla is, we can say that the moth has "adapted" a new host.) Further, Atteva punctilla is not adapted to survive cold winters, so apparently a population flies north each year to seek the abundant leaves of the Ailanthus trees. Since Ailanthus is generally considered undesirable (it has bad habits, like spreading into a huge thicket by runner roots, and producing a toxin that interferes with growth of other plants in its vicinity), the Atteva punctilla might be classified as a beneficial insect, although it doesn't do enough damage to seriously impact the Ailanthus. There are hundreds of images of this tiny but photogenic insect on the web. Here are a few: http://www.bugguide.net/node/view/1762 http://entweb.clemson.edu/museum/moths/local/moth16.htm

Can you post a picture? Beyond that, "havoc" isn't very specific. What are they doing? And to what plants?

Yes, rhizo that's a very strong possibility. Same size, same pattern. Thank you. The only difference is that in every photo I have seen they look more gold-and-black or tan-and-black striped. Mine have almost neon orange stripes. Literature I saw said they like eggplants, tomatoes, peppers. Well, my asian eggplants are interspersed among tomatoes and peppers, but those have been unaffected.