3 observations

This spider used to guard my porch door from any bugs for a long time until my intoxicated roommate killed her. She was a yellow garden spider that my girlfriend had named velocity, which came to be her new pet. I found out that the zigzag in the middle of her web is called a stabilimentum which the purpose of is debated. Either for camouflage or to warn bigger animals about the presence of a web. Information from https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Invertebrates/Yellow-Garden-Spider

Often referred to as a tomato hornworm I found these guys eating up my tomato plants at my house. I had been wondering why my tomato’s weren’t doing good until I found a couple of these guys on them. During my research I found that one of the natural ways to get rid of these guys is through the use of wasps. People have been using the trichogramma wasp and Cotesia congregata wasps as natural pest control. Information from https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Manduca-quinquemaculata