Posted on 11/04/2001 5:23:53 PM PST by 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?
Shouldn't that be the PETW folks (if not, then maybe the PETI) ??
Oh I know you much better than that. *guilty grin* check out post #58 and click the link.
LOL! I think the unwritten rule is that you can never change your screen name without going through a new "newbie" period. That's why I have never seriously considered changing to a more creative screen name. I couldn't handle the loss of "seniority," such as it is!
Ah FOOEY!!!!!!!!!
I think the scorpions come into the house to eat the woolyworms. Very disgusting. Once we found a rattlesnake in the house!! But it was just a baby. We have critters around here because we live by a State Park. A few summers ago our neighbors let their kids play on the driveway after sundown. They heard a hissing and ran in the house. It turned out to be a BIG rattlesnake. Of course this is Texas, everybody got thier guns and we had a rattlesnake roundup. Those things are hard to kill.
"There's evidence," he says, "that the number of brown hairs has to do with the age of the caterpillar -- in other words, how late it got going in the spring. The [band] does say something about a heavy winter or an early spring. The only thing is . . . it's telling you about the previous year."
If you look closely at wooly worms, you may notice that they aren't all one color. Sometimes they have black hairs on each side of a reddish brown band. Heavy black on the front supposedly means a hard winter while red velvet on the rear means a mild winter.
Or if the wooly has a wide center of brown, then it will be mild winter all the way. If they are light colored in the front and dark in the back, it will be mild and then harsh.
What happens if you can't tell the difference between the front and back of the worm? You'll be just like the rest of us and won't really know what to expect.
Based on what I see in the Pic......I'd buy a parka and a new snow shovel for Hubby :o) .......
Stay Safe !
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