Wooly Wooly Worm

Saturday morning was perfect for a long brisk walk. As we were enjoying the path,  WR pointed out this fuzzy little Wooly Worm toodling across.



You are supposed to be able to forecast the extremes of winter by this little fellows coat.  (Or is she a girl?)

I was pleased to find these instructions at ehow.com
(I'm thinking I may not bother to dig into the storage area for my snow tires.)


  1. Step 1
    Look for wooly worms under rocks and inside hollow logs.


  2. Step 2
    Examine the wooly worm, paying attention to its bands of colors. The wooly worm will curl into a ball when touched or threatened. When they crawl, they can crawl very quickly!


  3. Step 3
    Wooly worm forecasters say that the size of the brown band of color will tell you what kind of winter is coming. Legend says that the thinner the brownish red bands, the harsher the winter will be. If the wooly worm is mostly brownish red in the middle, winter will be mild.


  4. Step 4
    Wooly worm enthusiasts claim an 85 percent success rate over the last few decades. Scientists tend to disagree and say wooly worm weather prediction is as unscientific as using groundhogs to predict winter weather. The groundhogs likely side with the wooly worms.
     






Comments

nikki said…
Great, now I have to go find me some wooly wooly worms! Does coloring them that brown color work too?
Jenni said…
I've seen varying thicknesses on those woolly worm bands this year. Maybe that means we will get a little cold weather and a little mild weather. I've never seen a woolly bear with a very thin band though.

One other thing you should know about woolly bears, if you're planning to use them for an insect collection, it takes a lot to kill them. Making sure they are good and dead is important if you don't want them to crawl off their pins while your collection is on display in the science classroom. Your biology teacher may count off points for woolly bears which have not been thoroughly killed. A week in the freezer is not necessarily enough to do the job, nor is time in a jar with a nail polish remover soaked cotton ball. Points will also be taken off for including an insect in larval form rather than a mature adult, unless the purpose of your collection is to illustrate the life cycle of different insects. Also, you may feel guilt over this incident for the next 23 years!
kailani said…
Very interesting! I've never even heard of a Wooly Worm before.
Coffeypot said…
Maybe they would make good ice-fishing bate, too.
That's better than the old groundhog method! Cool!!
darkfoam said…
just up the mountain from me a town hosts an annual wooly worm festival with a wooly worm race. i do believe it was just recent. haven't heard any predictions though ..
grammy said…
What was you prediction according to you wooly worm? We have had a weird one so far. What stripe means weird (o:
We have boat loads of sayin's and weather folklore here in the Ozarks hills and hollers. Some swear by the persimmon seed forecast, the woolly worm, toads....ya'll get the picture. I just know that this farm chick is not a winter person. Nope, don't like it one bit!

Ya'll have just a wonderfully blessed day!!!
Unknown said…
Now I am much more knowledgeable about wooly worms than ever! :)
Gattina said…
Although it looks much better then usual insects, and I could even consider to pet it, but still I would prefer if it would have little ears and look more like a cat. But it has beautiful colors, I have to admit !
Thanks for poppin' in and sayin' hello. I'm so sorry it's sounds like ya'll had a tough time 'that' part of your life. My motto is ya might as well laugh about it 'cause cryin' sure doesn't help.

You have yourself one gorgeous fall day and as Granny Clameptt would say,"ya'll come back now, ya hear!"
ChrisB said…
Well I've learned something new today.
LadyStyx said…
On the day we left Texas, we saw one that was completely black. That winter turned out to be one of the WORST the area had had in years.
Carla said…
Is that really a wooly worm? Looks like something that I use to clean the inside of my jars. A spectacular little specimen.
DesLily said…
this is yet another photo from my past!! loved getting wooly worms and just let them crawl on my arms!! also saw "jack o lantern" in a photo...wow there really ARE some things that never change!!
Karmyn R said…
the problem with this picture - I have nothing to compare the width of the brown stripe with. If you had a picture of one last year - then that would be most helpful! ha
Claudia said…
Interesting! Before I left Baltimore, I heard another way of winter prediction--squirrels. If the squirrels are digging like mad, then it'll be a harsh winter. If they're not too preoccupied with digging and storing, then it'll be a mild winter.
Susan said…
And here I thought that was a caterpillar! I haven't seen any of those around, but we've got lots and lots of spider webs (and I'm guessing the spiders to go with them) Think that means anything???
Peter said…
No comment, I don't have worms!!!!
I bet mine are all frozen and hibernating already. They probably don't have a speck of brown on them either:(

Popular posts from this blog

Apparitions in my Garden

An Old Cold Spot

I Can Almost Smell it