Because I’m a certain vintage, the phrase “woolly bear” brings to mind the song Wooly Bully, a 1965 tune by Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs. It has nothing to do with insects and isn’t very compelling, but became a big hit nevertheless. Listen for yourself.On the other hand, woolly bear caterpillars – also known as woolly worms and hedgehog caterpillars – are extremely compelling. Maybe it’s the cute fuzziness. Maybe it’s the fierce determination to cross the road, housed in a tiny body. Whatever, the larvae of Isabella tiger moths are hands down my favorite caterpillar. Go woollies!!! For the record, woollies travel up to 4 feet per minute and don’t appear to need my encouragement. Woolly bears are found only in North America. Eight species live in the U.S., but the banded woolly bear (Pyrrharctia isabella), with his fuzzy coat colored black at the ends and rust in the middle, gets all the attention. Multiple states hold festivals to honor His Fuzziness, including the single largest one-day festival in Ohio, held annually in Vermillion since 1973. September 29th is this year’s big day, so be there or be square. Check it out.Fall is when you’ll spot little woollies determinedly charging here and there – but to where? A cozy spot to hibernate, of course, for shelter from wind and predators. Spots with a little moisture such as under leaf debris, tree bark and wood chips make perfect woolly winter habitats. Once there, woollies curl up into a small, bristle-y ball. Those bristles (called setae) help scare off predators (such as wasps, hornets and birds), and also make woollies difficult to grab. And then the woollies snooze…or you might say froooze…This is where woollies crush adaptation, using biochemistry. They produce cryoprotectants (organic antifreeze) in their hemolymph (like human blood) that lower the freezing temperature of their body to about 14 degrees F. They also make a chemical that slows the development of ice in the fluid between their cells, protecting them from damage. And then they turn into woolly cubes – everything except the fluid inside their cells.The woolly’s setae help regulate the freezing, especially if the temperature fluctuates during winter and the woolly thaws and then refreezes. This bears repeating – woollies can freeze, thaw, refreeze, and live to tell about it. However, the energy toll this takes may reduce their ability to pupate in spring.Once spring arrives, woollies thaw and start crossing roads again, this time searching for food. Woollies aren’t finicky, eating grasses, plants like clover, dandelion, asters, and leaves of birch, maple and other trees. After a short period of feeding, woollies produce silk they mix with their setae, forming cocoons. Cocoons hatch after roughly two weeks, and the Isabella tiger moth emerges. There are no festivals. Adults feed, mate, lay around 50 eggs on plants and then party’s over – they die after 1 to 2 weeks. Eggs hatch after 4 to 5 days into the next generation of woollies for the season. Watch one hatch. The larvae spend the next few weeks eating, growing and shedding their skins (exoskeleton) 5 or 6 times (molting).These are the woollies outside right now. Have you looked to see what they are predicting? Everyone knows that the color of a woolly bear’s coat predicts the severity of the upcoming winter. Wider black bands indicate a harsh winter, a wider rusty middle band means a milder winter.I really want to believe that woollies can do this. Sadly, this is fake news that’s been around since colonial times. In 1948 the legend got a big boost from a study done by Dr. Howard Curran. Curran, an entomologist from the American Museum of Natural History, went out to Bear Mountain, NY with colleagues, wives and a reporter, looked at 15 woolly bears and correctly predicted that winter’s weather. (Sounds more like a party than a scientific expedition.) The reporter published the story and it went viral (as much as that was possible in 1948). People have believed it ever since.This myth has been scientifically and thoroughly debunked. A woolly bear’s coloring depends upon its growth and age. With each molt, woollies become more rust and less black. No one cares. Everyone still believes that woollies predict the weather.And why not? It’s just another reason to give woollies more love. Enjoy these woolies, then go outside and say hello to the ones in your backyard. Just handle with care – they don’t sting like many caterpillars, but their bristles may cause inflammation on sensitive skin. See you at the woolly bear festival!The post Why did the woolly worm cross the road? appeared first on Signal Akron.