Ash Borer Traps 2014

Here's some information on another project of ours. I am personally all too familiar with this project, seeing as how much we focused on it last summer. So, has anyone seen our purple traps lately? I'll tell you straight away that they haven't moved much since last year. Now, while the state is no longer keeping tabs on their hanging traps in western Connecticut, we're still checking ours on a regular basis.
We're checking the traps for an invasive beetle called the Emerald Ash Borer. It has already been found most recently in the towns of Southington and Watertown, so we're on alert here in Litchfield.

Ash Borer trap at the Wamogo high school

The beetles are attracted to both the color of the trap and the scent pack located on the other side of the panels.The scent pack contains chemicals that are associated with ash leaves. At each trap we must first take it down and then check the purple panels for Emerald Ash Borers. The beetles get stuck on the sticky residue coated on the panels and can't really go anywhere. We go to each side of the trap and meticulously scan over the insects to see if any are Eastern Ash Borers present. If there are any insects that look suspicious, we take them off of the trap and preserve them in ethyl alcohol until we can make a proper identification. 

We have checked all of the traps on our property and thankfully we have yet to find any ash borers. The most common insects we find are usually fireflies. We will continue to check these traps until evidence of ash borers in Litchfield is found.