Meet Pyrrharctia Isabella better known as the Woolly Bear Caterpillar.

This month for our Horticulture presentation, Linda Hooper shared information about the Woolly Bear caterpillar.

In New England if you want a forecast for the upcoming winter you look for a woolly bear caterpillar. According to folklore, the amount of black and brown or rust bands on the woolly bear predicts the winter weather.  The longer the black bands the longer, colder, snowier and sever the winter will be.

Look for them in the Autumn after they have left their food plants in search of a dark and sheltered place to hibernate for the winter.  Their woolly coats help them survive the winter and they create a natural antifreeze called glycerol.

Woolly bears play “dead” by curling up into a tight, bristly ball which earns them the name Hedgehog caterpillar.

In the Spring they awaken and form a cocoon and after two to three weeks they turn into an orange/yellow tiger moth. The tiger moth lives for only a few days during which it mates, lays eggs and dies.