Hi Aaron4usa,
Here during winter every caterpillar will seek an hide.
Normally they go in between dead wood or plastic pots. I had once 3 caterpillars wintering in between pots, so to be honest they don't scare at all.
Normally I don't kill them, but that one just started a bad habit - and it could have produced a strain of caterpillars with that bad habit .
So, it was sentenced to not winter safely !
As I already have written, this winter here was mild, and normally all figs go toast to the cold temps, so they can't be used as hides.
In fact I almost found that scene funny ... But even with caterpillars too much is too much and so I need to get rid of them.
I already have birds hanging around and doing part of the job, so I'm not that much concerned about that little problem.
But now of course, I'm checking every week and knocking each bad looking fig as soon as I spot it, which is just normal house keeping.