What a freak this bug is...wow, very strange. Thanks, tomorrow in the daylight if he's still there I'll see if I can move him enough to get a better look. Thanks again!

I strongly suspect this is actually a bagworm caterpillar. It would appear to be too large for a lacewing larva, and the "baggage" in this image is far more typical of a bagworm caterpillar.

if it's bag worms that's not good is it? My maples had bag worms several years ago, but the hurricanes cleared them out, hope they're not coming back...yuck. Thanks for the info.

and I don't mean to cause anybody grief but I would go with the bagworm ID due to the fact that you said it was "sticking out off the side of the table". The bagworm has basically one point of contact and will hang down or stick out of whatever it is holding on to where the lacewing larva would crawl and tend to lay flat.

Just making an uneducated observation and certainly not meaning to undermine any of our helpful experts.

I'm not sure it's a bag worm simply because it has little skinny black legs sticking out that are far too long for any type of caterpillar or worm. And wouldn't you know, we had a hard rain last night and he's nowhere to be seen now, but I'll keep a look out for him. But I am very much an amateur at this, so who knows. Thanks very much for your thoughts.

With bagworms, the female moth can't fly: she stays in her bag until she dies, but before she does she mates with males who find her by scent and lays her eggs there. The eggs hatch and the caterpillars crawl away to make their own bags and find food.

See the Family Psychidae guide page for more information and images