Can you really predict the weather from the bands on a Woolly Bear Caterpillar (Pyrrharctia isabella)? Probably not, since a collection of caterpillars in the same year will have varying amounts of brown and black.
But it you want to believe it, the story goes something like this. The amounts of brown and black supposedly indicate the severity of the upcoming winter. More brown, mild winter. Less brown, severe winter.
Looks like we are in for a mild winter... Hmm, October 31st and still no killing frost here in the Islands.
Woolly Bear Caterpillars don't seem to mind either way. They forage until it does freeze. Then they over winter in a frozen state only to wake up again in the spring.
