Is it a tent caterpillar?

I think you're right! The images I see in google seem to match. I bet that's what made the web on my photinias, too.

Looks like you has a family of mealybugs there, too! I get them with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol if it is a small infestation.

Susan

Are you sure they're mealybugs? The google images I'm finding don't really look all that similar to what I've been seeing. The recommended control for cottony scale is to dip it in alcohol, too, so I guess either way I have to do the same thing. I would probably call it a small infestation at this point. Every day I find one cluster somewhere on one of my new shrubs. It's not like they're covered in them.

I've never seen them until I got these shrubs, so I'm a bit disappointed in Marcum's Nursery for that. All of the plants I've gotten from Lowe's before this have been infestation (of any kind) free. :/

They look like cottony mealy bugs, but could be cotton scale. It is hard for me to distinguish between the two in photos.

I've linked images of cottony mealy bugs for you to compare with your little critters.

Around here at least, cottony mealy bugs seem more common than cottony scale. I don't know if that is true in your part of the state though.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Cottony mealy bugs