If you haven’t seen these purple triangular tubes swaying from trees on the roadside yet, you will. Curious, I looked into it, and they turn out to be insect traps. The emerald ash borer—a non-native species—threatens to lay waste to our ash trees, having killed some thirty million thus far, and agriculture departments throughout the country are trying to figure out what sort of a problem they’re facing. These traps don’t necessarily mean that the borer is a problem, just that officials are investigating. When you see them, just leave them alone and hope for the best.
For more information, here’s a Kansas newspaper article on the topic.
My street up here in Somerville is lined with ash trees. Thanks for reminding me to educate myself on what ash borers look like so that I can catch and report them if I see any!
Thanks for the heads up. I was figuring on updated Gypsy moth traps.
Thanks Waldo for solving the mystery.
My husband and I saw these yesterday and he thought they were bird boxes, and I didn’t have a clue- so now we know.
The Newsleader had an article about them: http://www.newsleader.com/article/20110426/NEWS01/104260309/Purple-traps-set-catch-destructive-emerald-ash-borers?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Frontpage DontMiss|p
I wish they were used for capturing stink bugs.
Waldo – your timing is perfect – was about to begin researching these curious things – and here you are with the answer – YOU ROCK!