816-LancMter Farming, Saturday, October 5, 1996
All Gardens
Great & Small
by
York Co.
Horticultural A<
Tom Becker
Woolybear Forecasts A
‘Snow’ Job
I love fall weather. On warm
days in the fall. I’m back dodging
the wooly bear caterpillars cross
ing the road. Depending on your
location, you may know them as
woolly worms or blackened bears.
Can the orange band on the
banded woolybear predict a hard
or easy winter? In American folk
widsom, a wide band means hard
winters and a narrow band means
easy winters. Old-timers also say
dark on the ends predicts a bad fall
and spring. And, a wide (orange)
center band means a longer milk
period in the middle of winter.
Although fun, folk wisdom has
little base in science. Woolybears
make very poor forecasters. The
banded woolybear (Isa Isabella) is
actually the hairy caterpillar of the
Isabella Tiger Moth. It overwin
ters as the caterpillar and eventu
ally becomes a small (two inch)
yellow moth with a few black dots
on the wings. The banded wooly
bear has a pale yellow, long
haired cousin the yellow wool
ly bear (Diacrisia virginica) who
turns into a similar-sized and pat
terned whitish moth.
According to Eric Day, an
insect ID specialist for Virginia
Cooperative Extension, wooly
bears do a better job predicting
summer weather. How? When
woolybears have an abundant
food supply in the summer, it’s
mosdy orange. If it had a bad sum
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mer, it will be mostly black.
Others suggest the coloration of
the caterpillar indicates the matur
ity of the caterpillar. But, when is
it full grown? The caterpillar is
fully grown the closer we get to
winter. It should be over two
inches long with a broad colored
band or red-brown bristles.
Wooly bears feed on mainly
wild plants but also on com, birch,
and a wide range of weeds. They
frequent meadows, pastures,
uncultivated fields, and road
edges. They seldom attack crops
or ornamental plants in the garden.
Woolybears do have a short
life. This is true even before they
slowly cross roads perpendicular
to traffic. Woolybears seek shelter
in the winer and emerge hungry in
the spring.
So, if you see an all-black or
all-orange caterpillar crossing the
road in late October; it’s probably
not the woolybear. It is more like
ly the larvae of another caterpillar
the great leopard moth, or, the yel
low woolybear. But it’s still fun
for the great and small gardener to
talk about the wooly bears and the
weather.
Soon, we’ll be checking the
hornet’s nest or the yellow jackets
or crickets to forecast weather. 1
think not!!!
Any questions regarding the
above article can be addressed to
Tom Becker, Penn State Coopera
tive Extension, at (717) 840-7408.
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Peterson Wins Reading
Fair Award
Every year the Reading Fair
recognizes two outstanding FFA
members. These members have to
be outstanding in a particular area
of agriculture and must be 1996
Keystone Award winners.
Crystal Peterson, member of
the Twin Valley FFA, is one of the
winners of this prestigious award.
Crystal is the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. John Peterson of Hooey
Brook. Crystal has been very
active in Food For America and
Tcl-Hai pet therapy, which she
was chairperson of for two years.
Crystal also served as a chapter
officer.
She has helped with tree plant
ing, the county milk shake wagon,
the Hay Creek Fall Festival, the
American Agriculture Day Break
fast, and has attended the County
and Collegiate FFA Leadership
Conferences.
She has participated in area
dairy foods contests and received
>» gold and a 3rd place medal in the
Pennsylvania FFA Dairy Foods
contest. She was a member of the
Pennsylvania FFA team which
earned a bronze medal in the 1994
national FFA dairy foods contest.
Crystal was also a member of
the 3rd place state FFA nursery
landscape team in 1995. She has
attended the Made for Excellence
and State Legislative Leadership
conferences. She received the
agricultural processing and horti-
111
w
culture foundation medals. Crystal
was a 1996 Keystone Degree reci
pient and one of our chapter stats.
Crystal was graduated from Twin
Valley in 1996 and looks forward
to a career in horticulture.
Olexa Wins Allentown
Fair Award
The Allentown Fair presents an
award to an outstanding FFA
members. They have to be out
standing in a particular area ol
agriculture and must be a 199 t
Keystone Degree recipient Rainr
Olexa, member of the Twin Val
ley FFA, won this award.
Raina is the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Steve Marino of Bitdsboro, a
1996 graduate of Twin Valley
High School, and a member of the
Twin Valley FFA at Morgantown.
She is an outstanding example
of FFA leadership in action. She
served as chairperson of the Twin
Valley FFA’s Agriculture in the
Classroom program this past year.
In tis capacity, she was responsi
ble for setting up and organizing
90 programs about agriculture in
the elementary schools of the
Twin Valley School District Top
ics included agriculture is every
where, agriculture in earlly
America, agriculture at Christmas,
plants as food, animals and food,
honey and bees, pet cate, treees
and forestry, wetlands, reptiles
and amphibians, rainforests,
insects, etc. Most lessons are
geared to fit into the science curri
culum of the third grade classes.
Raina was responsible for set
ting up the schedule of classes
with the elementary principals and
teachers, making sure instruction
al materials were available,
arranging transportation for the
agriculture students who were
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doing the programs, and helping
to prepare die students who did the
actual teaching. Each program
was about 30 minutes long with
most starting with a skit and prog
ressing through hands-on demon
strations and including a work
sheet packet to take home.
In March, Raina began to
organize the most difficult part of
this educational program. She
chared the committee which
organized a tour of the high school
agriculture facilities for all of the
third grade classes. This two-day
affair rotated 250 third grades
through eight teaching stations at
the high school and involved 125
high school agriculture students as
presenters.
Raina had to plan for busses and
arrange schedules with the three
elementary schools, assemble sup
plies at the high school, schedule
high school student presenters so
they didn't misst oo many other
classes, and supervise the actual
tours. She has done an outstanding
job as the chairperson on these
activities and will be missed.
In her spare time, Raina was
also involved in the state FFA
chorus, participated in the county
interview contest, and received
silver medals in the state FFA
record book contest for records on
her pet rabbits and work experi
ence. As a junior she designed and
pointed a rccuritmcnt brochure for
our agricluture program as part of
a visual communications/
agriculture project. She received
the agriculture communications
proficiency award as a result of
this publication.
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