There are quite a few purple boxes hanging in trees roadside throughout the Gasport area. Two that I know of off the top of my head: there's one on Hartland Road and another on Dale Road (off Slayton Settlement Road).What are they?
They are traps placed by the NY Department of Environmental Conservation and Cornell Cooperative Extension to collect emerald ash borers, an invasive beetle that has the potential to wipe out all the ash trees in the area. The traps have ash borer phermones in them which attract the beetles to the box, the outside of which is covered in a flypaper-like sticky substance. The scientists will then study the creatures caught in it.
The box on Dale Road is covered with insects, which is not a good thing. 2007 studies had us pegged at being 50 -100 miles away from the nearest infestation, an easy distance for flying insects to travel.
How bad are these beetles? The DEC says....
This Asian beetle, discovered in 2002 in southeastern Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, infests and kills North American ash species (Fraxinus sp.) including green, white, black and blue ash. Thus, all native ash trees are susceptible. Damage is caused by the larvae, which feed in tunnels (called galleries) in the phloem just below the bark. The serpentine galleries disrupt water and nutrient transport, causing branches, and eventually the entire tree, to die. Adult beetles leave distinctive D-shaped exit holes in the outer bark of the branches and the trunk. Adults are roughly 3/8 to 5/8 inch long with metallic green wing covers and a coppery red or purple abdomen. They may be present from late May through early September but are most common in June and July. Signs of infection include tree canopy dieback, yellowing, and browning of leaves.
Most trees die within 1 to 4 years of becoming infested, unless treated. The Emerald Ash Borer is responsible for the destruction of over 50 million ash trees in the U.S. since its discovery in Michigan.
