Wooly Worms

Wooly Worms

Here in North Carolina we have a lot of folk tales about predicting the weather. I'm sure ya'll have a few of your own. One of the most sure fire ways we have of weather prediction is by looking at a Wooly Worm. The Wooly Worm is one of the most beautiful caterpillars you will ever see. They are about 2 inches long and have a fuzzy covering that almost looks like fur. The 'fur' is in alternating bands of different shades of brown, up to, and including black. Usually you will see the Wooly Worms in the early fall and the intensity of the colors and the size of the different bands will tell you what to expect that winter, if you know how to read them.

Well, last fall, a year ago I was out walking in my beloved Dismal Swamps. I do so enjoy those swamps and had stopped to rest a bit. I was sitting on a huge sweet gum tree that had been blown over in the last hurricane, when I saw the largest Wooly Worm I, personally, have ever seen, coming down the trail towards me. He was about 30 yards away and I could see that he was about 3 feet long and at least 3 inches wide. I was absolutely amazed. I had never even heard of a Wooly worm that size, much less ever seen one. I stayed right still and watched him keep coming. The closer he got the bigger he looked. Finally he got close enough for me to make him out pretty good. What it was, was a dern snake coming down the path with a bunch of little traps thrown over his shoulder. He had been out trapping Wooly Worms and then skinned them out and made himself a fur coat. To show you that this is the absolute truth, that winter we had a 2-foot snowfall. The largest in our history.