They also eat leafy vegetables like spinach, cabbage, and more. Clovers, curly dock, and dandelions are some of their favorites. Usually, they prefer eating fallen leaves rather than grass or plants. They usually like to eat herbaceous plants that are low-growing and bear seeds. Wooly bears are herbivores, and they mainly feed on plants, herbs, leaves, and more. They only do it when faced with parasites. Interestingly, the caterpillars don’t normally consume these plants as they contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids which can affect their growth. When parasitic flies lay eggs on these caterpillars, they start consuming plants with bitter compounds, which keeps the parasitic larvae away from them. To deal with such predators, they have developed a unique “self-medication” technique. Self-Medication Against Parasitic LarvaeĪpart from the large predators, there are some parasites that attack these worms from the inside. This is also one of the main reasons why you should keep pets like dogs and cats away from the woolly bear caterpillars. When it comes to larger predators, if they try to swallow the caterpillar, the bristles will get stuck in the throat, causing gagging, coughing, and irritation. Since these bristles are dangerous for insects like wasps, they usually refrain from attacking. When they curl up, the bristles get pointed outside and provide protection to the internal organs of the body. The stiff hairs or bristles on the body of these caterpillars are extremely important to save them from larger predators like raccoons and red foxes.Īs mentioned above, these worms curl up like a ball when they sense danger. Bristles To Defend Against Large Predators Thus they can easily survive tough to mild winters. They also search for warmer places, like crevices in the rocks, abandoned logs, etc., to hibernate throughout the cold season. At times, they survive the winter inside an ice cube. They can survive temperatures that are as low as -90 degrees F. Thus the caterpillar slowly freezes during the winter, but they still remain alive as its internal organs are intact and working correctly. Glycerol prevents the inner body parts from getting frozen. Usually, it is tough for caterpillars to survive the extremely cold winters, but the woolly bears can survive in temperatures that go way lower than the 0 degrees F.ĭuring such times, they produce a substance in their body called glycerol. Let us look at them in detail in the sections below. There are other techniques and traits that these insects use to keep themselves protected against the cold and predators. They lie motionless (or rather play dead) in this position until the threat has passed. Woolly bears usually curl up like a ball and play dead whenever they feel threatened. Wooly Bear Caterpillar Defense Mechanisms Since they have a lot of predators, woolly bears have their own defense mechanism to protect themselves. Insects like parasitic wasps (such as yellow jacket wasps) and flies are also dangerous for them. One of the main predators of woolly bears is birds that hunt hairy caterpillars.īrown thrashers, American crows, and rufous towhees are some of the ideal examples of birds that prey on woolly bear caterpillars.Īpart from birds, they are also hunted down by mammals like raccoons, red foxes, deer mice, coyotes, and other larger mammals. Being herbivorous in nature, they actively eat leaves from small plants and leaves of elm, maple, and more. The woolly bears can be found across different parts of North America, Mexico, and Southern Canada. However, the color of the body keeps changing with age and the feeding capacity of these insects in the caterpillar form. They have a black-colored body with a rustic brown band in the middle. In fact, there is a myth surrounding their hair that says that one can predict the upcoming winter by looking at them! These worms are known for the thick coat of bristle-like hair on them. there are several species of Tiger moths, such as Giant Leopard moths, Isabella tiger moths, Eastern Tiger moths, and so on. The woolly bear caterpillar is the larval form of tiger moths.
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