Subject: Stickbug?
Geographic location of the bug: Silver Spring, MD
Date: 08/12/2018
Time: 12:14 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Found this in the back yard. Looks like there maybe eggs on its back. Is it going to mess up my garden?
How you want your letter signed: Gene
Dear Gene,
Your “stickbug” is an Inchworm or Spanworm, the caterpillar of a moth in the family Geometridae, and they are excellent twig mimics. What you have mistaken for eggs are actually the pupae of parasitoid Chalcid Wasps. Here is a similarly parasitized Inchworm on BugGuide and here is an image of the Chalcid Wasp that emerged, also on BugGuide.