Woolly bears may appear fluffy, but their coats have tiny barbs at the tips that can break off and irritate your skin.

Look, but don’t touch-unless you’re willing to risk a rash. Look for them inching across roads and driveways, on their way to find a spot to overwinter in the leaf litter or under rocks and rotting logs. Woolly bears are most noticeable in fall, around the time that we’re hit with the first frosts. Each time a woolly bear moults, the rust-coloured portion of its body gets longer. In reality, the thickness of the caterpillar’s rust or black bands has to do with its age and growth rate.

The myth dates back to colonial American folklore but was. So how do these caterpillars foresee the future? Allegedly, a caterpillar with a wide rust-coloured midsection and narrow black bands at either end of its body forecasts a mild winter a caterpillar with the opposite colouration predicts a long, harsh winter. Legend holds that the length of a woolly bear caterpillars color bands can be used to forecast how severe the winter weather will be.

Their orange-brown middle sections appear as they get older and grow longer (up to 5 cm).

Rust-and-black banded woolly bears are the larvae of Isabella tiger moths. Fat, furry, and rumoured to be able to predict the weather: that’s the woolly bear caterpillar in a nutshell.

Download the wooly caterpillar