What kind of bug is this?

That curly thingy does look like a worm but it's a part of the plant.

It does look like the picture of the red and black nymph.
If you take a closer look you will see some smaller solid red bugs.
Are they a different bug or just baby versions of the larger one with the black markings?

On a few of these seed pods I have also found a few ladybugs.

John, I'm not sure what type of weed/plant that is.
We bought this place last September. There are 3 acres in front of the house that I haven't mowed since last November, mostly because of the bluebonnets and other wild flowers. Been waiting for them to seed out, which they are now doing.
The plants with the bugs flowered out after the bluebonnets were up pretty good.
It was a very interesting white flower. From a distance they looked like baseballs. When you got a little closer you could see that this ball was made up of many tiny white flowers, each about the size of a nickel.