CURIOUS ABOUT the purple box hanging high from a tree at the west end of Lover’s Lane, of course we investigated so we could let everyone know what it is. The box is 24 inches tall, three-sided, open at the top and bottom. It dangles in the breeze. Inside the mobile, bug bait lures insects.

The sign affixed to a nearby tree reads, “Please do not disturb this sticky insect trap. This purple sticky trap is here to catch emerald ash borer beetles. We want to see if any emerald ash borer beetles live in this forest. This trap will catch them if they are in the area. Vermont Agency of Agriculture Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey Program. Contact Jon Turmel, State Entomologist at Vermont Agency of Agriculture with questions or comments.”

On the sign, there is a picture of a penny with a metallic emerald green beetle on it. The malicious adult beetle is about onehalf inch long and one-eighth inch in diameter.

On the sticky trap, plenty of insects have been caught on the surface but the trap is too high in the air for the average reporter to identify the diverse kinds.

Vermont’s agriculture department website states they are “employing a manufactured detection tool”, aka “a purple trap” for convenience. The trap’s purpose is not to reduce the EABB population but to detect it. But not to worry, the website asserts that the manufactured detection tools will not attract EABB from infested areas and that the traps pose no danger to humans, pets or wildlife. There are 75,000 traps strung in every state but Hawaii. The project is funded by the USDA.

Midsummer, the traps in Vermont will be surveyed and the lure refreshed. In the fall, they will be surveyed again and removed.

Before 2002, the Agrillus Planipennis, or emerald ash borer beetle, was unknown in North America. Then it was found it Michigan. The ash borer beetle’s population built and spread until it had killed or damaged so many trees in southeastern Michigan that people noticed. It can kill a small ash in two years, larger ones can take up to four years.

Since 2002, it has been found in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and in Ontario and Quebec. Experts don’t think the beetle spread to ravish all those areas since 2002, it’s just that once they began looking they found it.

The emerald ash borer beetle’s home territory is eastern Russia, Northern China, Japan, Korea. It probably arrived in North America in packing or crating materials. An adult beetle can fly about half a mile from where it emerged so it didn’t fly over here.

Regulations now control ash nursery trees and ash logs with bark. Transporting firewood outside quarantined areas is illegal.

You may read more at emeraldashborer. info. If you can stand it.

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What’s bugging you this summer? How are you dealing with it? Do you have enough earwigs? Do let us know, please; this is not a trap. commontalk@ trans-video.net