Look at the Wooly Worm I found! Long winter or short?

Mother Nature

[lawgirl]

Yesterday I was cleaning my house, and I went to pick up what I thought was a piece of cardboard box. It was a wooly worm!! (An inch-long caterpillar that looks and feels like a thick pipe cleaner and appears in the autumn.) After screaming, dropping him and probably scaring him half to death, I called my husband to come and pick him up (hehe). Anyway, we both noticed what huge brown stripe he had on his back. Growing up in Iowa, I remember there was an old Indian's tale about being able to predict what the winter was going to be like by how thick the brown stripe was on the back of the wooly worm, but I can't remember how it goes. Does a thick stripe mean a long winter or a mild one??? I would love it if someone could "read the wooly worm" and tell me which way it is! Anyway, here is a photo of him- isn't he cute?

[lawgirl]

(NO this is not a thread about X42 so don't go there! LOL!)

[Paradox]

I think you have discovered a remnant of Osama Bin Ladens beard. He got blowed up, and the fragment must have landed in your house..

Just in case, feed it some bacon :)

[mtngrl@vrwc]

EEEeeek! **passing out**

All right, I am ok now. Living in California, I have absolutely no idea what a long winter is! LOL

Anyway, I guess I am not the right person to ask about this. :(

[Texaggie79]

Do you like cheese?

[Husker24]

Ive heard about that tale, im not for sure though, i have a gut feeling that it means a long winter though.

[BigBlueJon]

Grandma back in Kentucky would say get ready for a cold one. Good catch.

[lawgirl]

ROFL!!!!

mtngrl- well not ALL of us can live in the land of the eternal summer! LOL! Do you mean you've never seen a wooly worm?

[kristinn]

A thick stripe like that means a winter of apocalyptic proportions. I'm stocking up on six month's worth of food, water and Cipro right away. Thanks !!!

[Pokey78]

I thought this was a wooly worm:

[Fred Mertz]

Here in Kentucky they even have a Wooly 'Worm' celebration/festival. I don't know how to read them though.

[DallasMike]

This winter will be colder than last summer. I guarantee it.

[nagdt]

I was golfing this week and saw a few wooly worms on some of the putting greens. Here in Dallas they were a lovely color..hummmm...like burnt orange. I had to "do away" with the critters as they were in my line. What does it all mean?

[SarahW]

The width of the brown bands on the banded woolly worm is used as a winter indicator. Wider brown bands are said to indicate milder winters. This means that the more black the woolly worm has the more harsh the winter will be. All black woolly worms indicate severe winters.

I don't know about any grammas in Kentucky, but mine in East Tennessee would predict a mild winter, if she were to observe the abnormally wide brown band on the referenced wooly bear.

[Keith in Iowa]

About Woollybears...

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

I think a thicker, wider stripe means a colder, longer winter with more snowfall.

[Gordian Blade]

The "wooly worm" or "wooly bear" has 13 bands representing the 13 weeks of winter. The darker the band, the colder and snowier that week. (Which is strange to me, because where I live, when it gets really cold, it doesn't snow.)

Here's the link.

[JRandomFreeper]

You killed them? Ohmygosh! Expect to re-live the elections mess over again and again until a groundhog shows up. Hmmm. Or something like that...

/john

[lovemycody]

Brace yourself lawgirl,get those long-johns out,and stay tuned for ol'man winter, cause he's a'coming!

[mtngrl@vrwc]

Nope, I have never, ever seen a wooly worm. 'Course, maybe it's because I faint everytime I see any creepy crawly creatures! LOL!

[Michael Barnes]

Don't know if this is true or not, but Farmer's Alamnac (supposedly) says if you see snow in October, it's gonna be a nasty winter. Well, we had flurries that stuck to anything that what was cold enough to stick to about a week before the 31st. I went out today and cut two bed's full of burnable stock -Ram with an 8 foot bed-. That is on top of the two cords I already have. (Note, when I went out this a.m., it was 31 degrees...western PA). However, I digress, everytime I try to predict a bad winter, it is always a pleasant one. Deeming as though I love winter, I am this year predicting a pleasant one..Will wait to see what happens..