How in the world are we to get a hokey way to forecast the winter? There are no woolly bears. This photo is from late last summer.
Last year in early September, I started doing my count of dark, light and mixed woolly worms or woolly bears on back roads.
No, I don't particularly believe they are a way to forecast how bad the winter will be, but it is one of those things in the wilds I have noticed since I was a kid.
We are well into the first week of October and I have yet to see a single woolly bear. Not one. I still drive the same back roads as much as I did last year, maybe even more this fall.
And I have not spotted a single woolly bear.
Is is the cool summer we had this year? Or the brief spurt of summer that came late? Insecticides?
If you have ideas, let me know below or at oudoordb@sbcglobal.net. I am curious.
Normally, they're all over my garden...I haven't seen one all year either.
Is there yet another unidentified invasive species killing them off? This has certainly been a year of seeing non-native species in the Midwest. (example - all the pacus that have been taken recently).
All joking aside, there has to be some explanation. To have not seen a one yet is unbelievable. Maybe something exotic is the explanation, though I bet it has to do with the weather.
I have seen two. One at Silver Springs and one Aurora. Both last weekend.
There are here.
Here in Central Pa. (Hershey) there are no woolly bears either. On another web site someone thought that it was due to a late spring freeze. But I don't remember one here.
Perhaps it's the Apocalypse??