They're ladybird larvae; hard to say what species. Keep an eye on them and find out when they metamorphose!

iNaturalist is pretty good generally. Not sure how well its image recognition works for insects, though. (I mostly use it for plants.)

I get a lot of mileage out of The Conversation's feeds (https://theconversation.com/) -- interesting academic-ish essays, written for a lay audience

I'm not from the US but just wanted to say that I found your descriptions in this thread very evocative. Thanks for the perspective on a place in time that I otherwise hadn't seen