Insects

Insects, slugs, butterflies, bees and frogs are sensitive to changes of weather.

Worms

Worms, crawling on the road or on the surface of the ground, is a fore-bringer of rain, but, if seen crawling on the doorstep, look out for floods. During cold and inclement weather in Autumn, if black horse-worms can be seen crawling on roads or walls, a good warm spell of weather can be expected.

Caterpillars

Slugs and caterpillars crawling on wallsteads, forecast rain in the near future.

Frogs

Frogs were regarded in olden times as being rained from the skies, but in actual fact, they come out from their underground muddy shelters when heavy rain is on the way. Their jackets, also, change from bright green to a darker hue.

Frogs or tadpoles, seen in the middle of a pool, is a sign of a good, dry Summer, but frog spawn lying in a dry ditch, or on the ground, presages rain and floods.

Ants

Ants, known as flying ants, or 'Siongain eiteogach' in Irish, when seen flying in multitudes and settling on window-sills, railings, ledges, or even on roofs and bonnets of cars, are a sure sign of approaching rain. A sting from a flying ant can be very painful, and, the more painful it is, the nearer the rain.

Spiders

Spiders, patiently threading their webs outside doors and windows presage bad weather, but, when they weave their webs on tops of rushes or whin bushes in early Spring, good weather is on the way.

Midges

Midges muster their forces to persecute man and beast before the onset of rain.