Q: What is the explanation for the complete lack of woolly bear caterpillars this year? I saw an article from a Chicago paper that also mentioned the lack of woolly bears out in that area. Any thoughts? George D. Kurie, Hershey.
A: While I haven't spotted a complete lack of woolly bears this fall, I definitely have noticed a deep shortage of the critters.
I checked with John "The Mothman" Laskowski, a retired teacher and insect expert in northern Dauphin County, to confirm my suspicions about what we might be observing.
"This year, as you know, we had an exceptionally wet spring and summer," he explained. "All the tiger moth larvae overwinter as such, and with much standing water and continued high moisture content in the detritus where they reside, I suspect many drowned or succumbed to mold.
"Wooly bear moths, giant leopard moths and salt marsh moths were in very low numbers this year also, so evidently many of the cocoons did not survive either.
"Many butterflies suffered the same consequence. Heavy rains wash many larvae off their host plants. They are readily eaten by a variety of predators when not availed to their camouflage on host vegetation."
An additional note on woolly bear caterpillars: They cannot predict the weather in the approaching winter.
The relative size of the reddish-orange (middle) and black (ends) bands really only report how well the caterpillars fared in finding food in the summer and early fall. If they have found plenty of food, grown at a vigorous pace and gone through most of their six molts (skin shedding) before feeling the urge to seek shelter for the winter, their bodies have made more room for a wider band of reddish-orange. Each additional molt makes the caterpillar more reddish-orange and less black.