tiny red parasitic beetle

[brian flynn]

I have had two cats waiting to molt be sucked dry by these tiny (about half the size of a lady bug) beetle, red with an insignia on its shell similiar toa black widow spider hour glass. Does anyone know what kind of parasite this is and besides washing milkweed any way to rid my food plants?

[monarchrose]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I can tell you that there is a terrific book, Milkweed, Monarchs and More, a Field Guide to the Invertebrate Community in the Milkweed Patch, by Ba Rea, Karen Oberhauser, and Michael Quinn, that has a section on beetles. I learned so much about all of the critters that I see when looking at my milkweed. It has loads of pictures and is small enough to carry along on field trips. http://basrelief.org/NewFiles/features.html

[Chip]

I have had two cats waiting to molt be sucked dry by these tiny (about half the size of a lady bug) beetle, red with an insignia on its shell similiar to a black widow spider hour glass. Does anyone know what kind of parasite this is and besides washing milkweed any way to rid my food plants?

Brian: My guess is that the predatory insect (technically it's not a parasite) in question is a hemipteran rather than a beetle. Hemiptera such as stink bugs, assasin bugs, etc. have piercing and sucking mouthparts while beetles have mandibles for chewing.
Unfortunately, I'm not able to identify the insect to species or even family from your description but there are Pentatomidae (stink bugs) with similar color patterns. Sometimes it helps to know the location of the observation to make thses identifications.