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?

[Saundra Duffy]

You didn't squash it did you? For victory & freedom!!!

[lawgirl]

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 !!!

That is what I was afraid of!!!

bigBlueJon; FredMertz- My husband is from Kentucky and we JUST moved from there. I miss the Bluegrass already! :-D

Pokey78- ROFLMAO!!!!!

[teletech]

North Carolina Weather Lore

back to Fall Color

North Carolina Traditional Weather Lore

Back in the early days, when plants and animals were first made, they were told to fast and stay awake for seven days to gain spirit power. All were anxious to gain power so they tried to do as instructed and most were able to stay awake through the first night. The next night some started to fall asleep, and by the third night many of them were asleep. By the seventh night, only a few of the animals were awake. The panther, the owl and one or two others managed to stay awake and as their reward they were given the power to see and go about in the dark. Many of the plants also fell asleep and of the trees, only the cedar, the spruce, the pine, the holly, and the laurel were able to stay awake. As their reward, these were allowed to be always green, while the others must lose their leaves in the fall.

James Mooney, in his important work, 
History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee, 
relates the Cherokee's explanation for fall.

---

These are some of the more popular North Carolina folk sayings about autumn and the weather. Many variations exist and have been reported in numerous sources, including the Old Farmer's Almanac, the Foxfire series, and the collections of the NC Folklore Society. All of them are guaranteed to be true (sometimes).

• A warm November is the sign of a bad winter.

• Thunder in the fall foretells a cold winter.

• If animals have an especially thick coat of fur, it will be a cold winter.

• When squirrels bury their nuts early, it will be a hard winter

• If the woolly worms head is more black than colored, the coldest part of the winter will come in the first months of winter.

• The more black than brown a wooly worm has, and/or the wider the black stripe, the worse the winter.

• If fruit trees bloom in the fall, the weather will be severe the following winter.

• If berries or nuts are plentiful, it will be a hard winter.

• A cold winter is succeeded by a warm winter and vice versa.

• If the first snow falls on unfrozen ground, expect a mild winter.

• It will be a bad winter if trees keep their leaves until late in the fall

• Hornets nest built in the tops of trees point to a mild winter.

• The first twelve days of the year are thought to foretell the weather for each of the next twelve months. The variant is the 12 days from new Christmas (Dec. 25) to old Christmas (Jan. 5) determine the weather.

• If an owl hoots on the east side of a mountain it denotes bad weather.

---

© 1999 NCNatural
Last updated
For information about advertising or webservices, email "birdsong@ncnatural.com"

[Roger_W_Isom]

In response to POST 3... shouldn't there be a **THUD** there????ROFL

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

From

http://www.tnfb.com/communications/

READ ALL ABOUT IT 
by Pettus L. Read 
Tennessee Farm Bureau 

for week of April 9, 2001 

Sleeping In The Moonlight Can Cause Insanity 

     In this day of computers, modern science, and economic well-being for some folks, one fact still remains, the folklore and superstitions of one generation continues to be passed down to the next. Just as in years gone by, “old wives’ tales” still help many of us explain life and just why some things happen. How many times during the day, do you avoid stepping on a crack, breaking a mirror, walking under a ladder or drive out of your way to keep a black cat from crossing your path? To many of us, these avoidances are second nature and are something we practice because we have been taught that they are all bad luck. 
     Whether they are fact or fiction, these old wives’ tales are here to stay, even for those of us who are the more cynical non-believers. We may not believe them, but we don’t want to take a chance just in case there may be something to all of the many different folklore sayings. 
     Superstition and folklore are used to pick the right time to plant and harvest crops, achieve good luck or bad, and even to predict a certain action or happening. 
     Over the years, I have filed away several of the familiar and not-so-familiar tales. For example, if a woman carries an acorn in her pocket, she’ll never grow old. I know several who have tried this, and the only thing they have accomplished is preventing a lot of oak trees from growing old. 
Another one is sleeping in the moonlight can cause insanity. That reminds me. I have got to get that shade in our bedroom fixed. 
     If you happen to be a single woman, there are a few things you may do to find Mr. Right. 
One is to put a four-leaf clover on your door and you’ll marry the first bachelor who comes in that particular door. As I have said, I am a cynical non-believer and if this was true, four-leaf clovers would soon become a curse to bachelors like garlic is to vampires. Round-Up would become a rare item due to over purchasing by single guys. 
     If you want to know the name of your husband-to-be, put a snail in a plate of corn meal and leave it overnight. The snail will spell the initials of the person you’ll marry. If the snail does not write out the initials, he is already breaded, so enjoy some escargot. 
     If you are looking for rain, here are a few things to watch for. 
     When the dew is on the grass, rain will never come to pass. Cute poem, huh? 
     If it rains before seven, it’ll quit before eleven. 
     It will rain within three days if you see a black snake in a tree. When I see a snake in a tree that I am under, rain is the least of my worries. 
     Trees with the underside of the leaves showing mean a “bad” storm is on its way. However, a tree without leaves and limbs, means a bad storm has already happened. 
     When the grass is dry at morning light, look for rain before the night. Another cute poem, huh? 
     The one that always confuses me, is how to tell the weather from a wooly worm. I never know if it is going to be a bad winter if he is all black or all orange. So I looked it up. Here is what a famous folklore book said, “ The black band on the wooly worm is wide if there is going to be a bad winter. The more black than brown he is, and/or the wider the black stripe, the worse the winter. If he’s black in front, the bad weather is to come; and if he’s black behind, the worst weather is past. If he’s brown at both ends and orange in the middle, the winter will be mild. It’ll be a bad winter if you see him crawling before the first frost.” However, if he is flat, it means he is too slow for a fast car. 
     Being a cynical non-believer causes me to question many of these, but the one about the snail still has my attention. I am still trying to figure out how that snail in the cornmeal knows how to write English. 
-30- 
- Pettus L. Read is editor of the Tennessee Farm Bureau News and Director of Communications for the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. He may be contacted by e-mail at pread@tfbf.com 

[ohioWfan]

Hey, they have a Wooly Bear Festival in Cleveland too!!

[logos]

The surest sign of a long, cold and bitter winter is that you find nothing but frozen wooley worms. Wooley worms that are still twitchin' indicate a not-so-bad winter. The width and colors of the bands mean nothing.

And when you find a wooley worm wearing long johns, he's playin' a trick on you.

[Roger_W_Isom]

In response to post 9... THAT was AWFUL!!! ROFL** SLAP** **SLAP** Go back to HTML BOOT CAMP!!! ROFL DI WILL NOT BE PLEASED!!! ROFL

[lawgirl]

OH NO! Nope I didn't squash him- we took his photo and then my husband took him outside and let him go. Our cats sure were interested! In that photo he is sitting on a business card of my husband's and when we lowered him a little for the cats to take a look, they knocked him off the card and he was a little shook up! LOL! I scooped him back on the card and he kind of took a minute and then he was ok LOL! The cats were fascinated, and totally scared of it LOL!

Ted: "Look at the Wooly Worm my mom found!!! I wanted to eat it!"

[Bump in the night]

That's a "wool bear moth caterpiller". We have LOTS of those here! I'm a cranberry grower in Oregon, and I constantly pick them out of the bogs when we harvest. Some say that middle stipe on their back (how big or little it is) will determine if you're going to have a cold or warm winter. LOL. But I don't know which determines which. Cute, aren't they!

[tubebender]

I can't beleive the luck. I am looking for someone versed in folk lore myself. I have lived in this house for 22 years and while we have always had a mole or two make a mound or two this year we have at least 5 and the theory of how the Rocky Mountains were formed is being challanged here on the North Coast of Upstate Calif. Each of these critters is forming at least two large mounds a day. Any ideas?

[katze]

Could mean you'll get a visit from the PETA gang. ;-)

[error99]

A careful analysis of your wooly worm reveals that
it will get cold this winter
and then warm up in the spring.
Hope this helps...

[DaughterofEve]

Just make sure there's not 100 more of them eating your wool clothes somewhere in the house.

Here's my personal favorite insect, the rosy maple moth:

[DaughterofEve]

AWWWWWWWWW!!!! to Ted!

[Theresa]

Lucky you! I live in Texas and last spring I noticed a dead leaf on the carpet. I reached down to pick it up and then for some reason stopped short. I Looked closer.......IT WAS A SCORPION!!! YIKES!!!

[mtngrl@vrwc]

Oh yeah, **Thud**!

Thanks for reminding me!

[tet68]

After showing me your woolyworm,are you going to let me touch it?

Actually,I'm in the long cold winter set.
This summer was relatively cool so I figure winter will be extra cool too.

Gad,I hate summer,was glad when the Monsoon season finally arrived.Next,snow and a reason to be glad about standing in front of a fire.

[Scythian]

Uh oh, I'm pretty sure that means Hillary will win the 2004 election, time to "bug out" ....

[error99]

Is this going to be a new pick-up line?
Hey, wanna see my wooly worm?