The first hatches in May and second in August. We have two generations of these striped larvae each year. But, alas, fiction is so much more entertaining than reality.

They have additionally deduced that there 13 weeks of winter and that every black segment means one week of bad weather. The real wooly worm aficionados have even counted the body segments and determined that there are 13. Wide black stripes mean a bad winter, whereas a wide brown stripe in the middle means a mild winter. The story is that by looking at the stripes on the larvae, the amount of black determines how severe the winter weather will be. This fuzzy caterpillar is currently found crawling on sidewalks and sitting on porches all over Michigan. The brown stripe is in the middle and both ends are black. The larvae have rusty brown and black stripes on their bodies. Wooly worms or banded wooly bears are the larvae or caterpillars of the Isabella tiger moth. But is this possible? Is a small larva able to do what the weather forecasters with sophisticated predicting equipment cannot? Let’s meet these insect experts.

Most people have heard about how this little larva can predict just how bad the winter will be. For those who are outside raking, they often discover the furry, black and rusty brown wooly worm. With the fall weather comes garden and yard cleanups.

Download wooly worms