Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. If you found a black and brown fuzzy caterpillar in your backyard or on the road, chances are you saw a woolly bear caterpillar. But what do wooly bear caterpillars eat? So what exactly does the woolly bear caterpillar do to stay alive in freezing conditions over the winter? The caterpillars have fuzzy-looking bristles arranged in three bands – a black one at each end and a … A: Woolly bears, sometimes called banded wooly bears, are the caterpillars of the Isabella tiger moth, a yellowish moth with a wingspan of about 2 inches. Think about it! Near the end of their lives, the caterpillar turns into a full-grown moth. Wooly bear caterpillars are wonderful, furry creatures. Well, before I can answer that you need to know three important terms: Hibernation--- this is a state of inactivity and when the metabolism of an animal slows down (low body temp, heart beat slows, slow breathing, and low metabolic rate). When one comes across a woolly-bear on a hike across the tundra this tiny “cute” little caterpillar has spent 7 years of freezing and thawing, and freezing and thawing, alive . But when wooly bear caterpillars eat plants that contain alkaloids, which are natural chemicals, it can prevent and eliminate parasite problems. Woolly bear, orwooly bear, Caterpillar of a tiger moth.The larva of the Isabella tiger moth (Isia isabella), known as the banded woolly bear, is brown in the middle and black at both ends.The width of the black bands is purported to predict the severity of the coming winter: the … They spend about 90% of their lives frozen, though during June, they eat and eat in order to prepare for the next winter, which has just left and is about ready to come again. The Arctic Woolly Bear can live up to seven summers. The Arctic woolly bear moth’s range extends to the Arctic Circle, in Canada and even Greenland. Quote: Clover is the most popular plant to feed a wooly bear caterpillar, however most caterpillars start out eating their host plants, or the plants on which they are born. Woolly bear caterpillars are mostly found in cold regions including the Arctic. This far north, the shortages in vegetation mean that food does not come easily and so the woolly bear has to spend a long time frozen. Like most other caterpillars, wooly bear caterpillars eat a variety of forbs and herbs, grass and sometimes stems: plantain, nettles, dandelion, spinach, cabbage, different types of weeds. The key to caring for a caterpillar at any time of year is to provide conditions that mimic the caterpillar's natural cycle and habitat through seasonal changes. The banded woolly bear larva emerges from the egg in the fall and overwinters in its caterpillar form, when it literally freezes solid. You will need to provide your caterpillars with a solid habitat, feed them, and then release them into the wild once they turn into moths. Wooly-bears in the Alaskan Arctic can “live” for 7 years and the ones they have studied in the Canadian high Arctic can live to be 13 years old. Pyrrharctia isabella is its scientific name and this particular species of caterpillar belongs to the Arctiidae family of moths. 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