Discussion: Not evil

Those are milkweed pods. Milkweed is a favorite of the monarch butterfly. Very fragrant flower.

Fluff (image is a production cel from Disney's Fantasia.

And the beetles are, appropriately, milkweed bugs, apparently an important part of the plant's ecology.

Awesome! I was worried that they were something invasive, they look really exotic.

Here is more intelligence on this fine plant.

And here is a related plant, much less common, that we found one day along the rides through the clear cut at Ratlum. Very pretty. BTW, fences are now down, having done their job of letting the trees get big enough to withstand deer browsing.