The Woolly Worm Festival is an event held each October since 1978 in Banner Elk and Avery County, North Carolina.
The isabella tiger moth belongs to the subfamily Arctiinae which has 11,000 species around the world.
[2] Prior to settling in for winter, the woolly worm eats a variety of plants and then produces a kind of antifreeze which protects the creature from temperatures as low as -90 degrees Fahrenheit.
This caterpillar seeks safety from bitter winter weather by sheltering under logs, boulders, boards, rocks, and other dark places until emerging from its "frozen" state in May.
During each heat worms must race 42 inches up a vertical string attached to cardboard on the backboard of a flatbed trailer.