Purple Triangles hanging from trees in Vermont... no it is not "art"

[fishingpol]

We just got back from a road trip to Vermont and kept seeing purple triangles hanging from trees in various places along Route 89 and a few other smaller roads along the way. We thought it was a tourism promotion or something. Here is the very interesting answer:



(broken link removed to http://www.vermontagriculture.com/ARMES/plantindustry/caps/VermontEABTraps.html)





It was not what I was expecting, but they are being proactive.

 

[lukem]

Got them here too.

 

[shawneyboy]

Yep they are in NE PA, apparently those buggers love purple/violet type color.

Shawn

 

[Thistle]

I hope they do something like that here.So far as this June,EAB has only been sighted in 2 NE Iowa counties - Allamakee & Clayton.Expected to spread though.But quarantines are in effect for certain areas already.

 

[woodsmaster]

I hope it works to stop them ,but it didn't say about that. Just said it was to detect them.

 

[mayhem]

Those trapsa re everywhere here in western MA, no EAB detected in these parts yet.

 

[SnapCracklePop]

We had the purple traps here in SW Penna last year or the year before... Never heard the results.

Kind of on the same subject, I have noticed absolutely NO JUNE BUGS here lately. None at all this summer, and I am trying to think of the last time I saw one.

Not that I miss them, mind you. They always did give me the heebie-jeebies.

Curious, though.

Nancy

 

[MasterMech]

They are showing up everywhere around here too.

 

[amateur cutter]

Too late here, the ash trees in this area are about dead. Real bummer too. A C

 

[jimbom]

We had the purple traps here in SW Penna last year or the year before... Never heard the results.

Kind of on the same subject, I have noticed absolutely NO JUNE BUGS here lately. None at all this summer, and I am trying to think of the last time I saw one.

Not that I miss them, mind you. They always did give me the heebie-jeebies.

Curious, though.

Nancy

I had not realized it, but we did not have the usual June bug season. The periodical cicada outburst completely overwhelmed the norms this year.

 

[fossil]

...The periodical cicada outburst completely overwhelmed the norms this year.

Maybe not. Cicadas are interesting. There are different generations of them, and they don't all spend the same amount of time underground before emerging, and the different generations emerge in different numbers. What you saw this year was probably just what was expected from the generation whose time underground was up. There is a generation of them that spends nearly 17 years underground, and there are zillions of them. When they emerge, it's amazing. We saw this happen in Virginia in the Spring of 2004. It was mind-boggling. It won't happen like that again in that area until about 2021. It was all the "buzz" (so to speak) in the Northern Virginia/DC area that year, and they did not disappoint. My wife and I were fascinated and compelled to learn what we could about them. (Sorry...didn't mean to divert the thread from the EAB discussion. :red: ) Rick

ETA: This will possibly explain what you saw this year..."periodical" vs. "annual" broods of Cicadas:

(broken link removed to http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/newsletters/stories/cicadas_are_coming/)

 

[jimbom]

Poor writing on my part. I should have specified the norms referred to the annual insect cycles. I didn't notice the June bugs were missing because of the confluence of a couple of cycles of cicada. The cicadas were slightly different sizes. The smaller had more yellow in them. Other than that, I would not have realized we had a double hatch this year.

I thought it was interesting that the dog would eat the cicadas, but the cat would not. In fact, our cat seemed put out by the cicada outburst. Normally the cat torments everything unfortunate enough to cross his path. He did his haughty best to ignore those noisy, crude, clumsy cicadas.

EDIT: After reading the link to the good bug professor's article, perhaps I was seeing males and females. I don't know a darn thing about bugs, so should not post about them.

 

[Wingman]

I found those just on the other side of the river in IL. However, nothing in MO yet, except the "Promise Missouri, I will not move Firewood" billboards.

 

[SolarAndWood]

The little buggers aren't that far away from you guys in New England. We are going to be in the thick of it real soon.

 

[KB007]

So that's what they were. We just got back from a road trip from Ottawa thru the maritimes (PEI, Cabot Trail, lobster etc...) and came back thru Maine, NH, VT and NY and I remember wondering what those things were. Now I can seem all smarty-pants and tell my buddy what they were Trip was great cept for the 5 of 7 days of rain.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Our township supervisor went to a high-level meeting several years ago to talk about the ash borers. He stated that the meeting turned out to be mostly boloney and in the end, all the experts in the field freely admitted there knew nothing that would stop the progress. He had heard about them in several areas close to us for a few years before they got to us but get here they did. Recently though I've found some ash not that far from us that was just beginning to get hit. Around here, all ash are dead now.

 

[firefighterjake]

Random thoughts . . .

Seen the "art work" here in western Maine.

June bugs . . . seen plenty of them this year. No shortage here in Maine.

Cicadas . . . you folks and a friend originally from Ohio got me curious . . . I've lived all my life here in Maine and have never heard or seen any of these mass hatchings so I was curious enough to contact the University Cooperative Extension and leave a message inquiring as to whether we have cicadas here in Maine or not . . . I've heard a bug making a cicada like sound . . . but as I said, I've never seen the mass hatching that one often associates with these bugs.

 

[Littlespark]

We have no more live ash trees left in SE Michigan/ NW Ohio. They have been dead for over 4 years now. My family has been burning mostly ash since then. I just got a stove last year, and the ash makes up most of my woodpile also. My friend at the MSU extension office mentioned the traps just give the local entomologist the heads up that the ash trees are going to start dying. Ive been told they can't be stopped.

We had a huge load of June bugs this year.

I had a huge hatching of cicades (spelling) last year. I knew right away that it had happened because my lawn and the high grass field near my house looked like it had been driven over by one of those lawn aerator devices. Lots of 3/4 inch to one inch holes, with little plugs of dirt lying around. it was bizarre. I wish I had taken photos.

Little Spark

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Does anyone remember when they had the traps hanging for gypsy moths? They were all over the place around here.

 

[fishingpol]

I remember the gypsy moths. They were everywhere. We had a gooey band of something around the trees that the caterpillars would get stuck in. I believe the residue from at least 20 years ago if not more is still on my parents Norway maple tree. Those caterpillar decimated forests back then.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Ya, lots of folks wrapped black plastic around the trees and then the worms would not crawl up that tree. You are right about the damage. We had them really bad and then we took a trip out east and were amazed, especially in PA. One of the worst things I hated about them were that the worms crap and you'd see little black turds in the driveways and such. Then when it rained those turds blew up like popcorn. Really made a terrible mess.

 

[fishingpol]

So right about the dropping Dennis. I was fishing in a local pond in the summer time years ago. The tree canopy at the edge of the pond was almost gone. It was a quiet morning and all you could hear was the droppings falling from the trees onto the dead leaves below. The droppings did look like a black puff, almost like jet-puff cereal looking. I did love to ride over and pop the caterpillars while riding my bike to the fishing hole. What a beautiful sound.

On boy scout camping trips we would have contests to see how many gypsy moth egg sacks we could collect from the tree trunks by scraping them off. That was back in the good ole days when it was ok to carry a pocket knife with a scout totin' chip card and not be frowned upon.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Do you mean boy scouts can no longer carry a jackknife?! And I know what you are saying about all the droppings hitting the leaves. I'm glad those are behind us but wonder if some day they will make a comeback. Occasionally we still see a few but not enough to cause a problem.

 

[bogydave]

Wasn't Gupsy moth the reason they brought over the starlings from Europe? They ate the moths but then they found out they don't eat the caterpillars.
Now Starlings are a problem. We just started having them show up here, F&G has a standing order, "shoot on sight". Got a few this spring & now they avoid my area.

I remember the nest sacks hanging all over the cherry trees & in a few days, no leaves. SW PA. Liked apple too. Didn't know it wasn't as much of a problem now. Good.
Like you Dennis, I hated those things. I burned, smushed thousands of the nests, never seemed to put a dent on them.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I don't recall for sure why the gypsy's were brought over here but then the starlings. Nuts!