Anybody know what this thing is?

[JDgreen227]

About 3 feet long, and has been hanging about 4 feet off the ground on a pine tree about 700 feet down the road from us for two years now. Ground near it is covered with poison ivy so I did not get any closer. I am thinking it may be a bug collector for the state agriculture dept. or maybe something the state natural resources dept uses. Any ideas?

 

[JamesHW]

Looks like some sort of bug trap with the bottom for collecting. Perhaps they are looking for some destructive species like the EAB.

 

[Eastinlet]

It is a Lindgren Funnel Trap. Monitors bark beetle populations.

 

[JDgreen227]

Looks like some sort of bug trap with the bottom for collecting. Perhaps they are looking for some destructive species like the EAB.

Very logical explanation..I live in a county where the EAB is a real pest, came home an hour ago from a factory outlet mall where they cut down about 50 beautiful Emerald Ash trees about 2 years ago, and never made the connection to this gadget....will research online now and see if you figured it out.

 

[Eastinlet]

The Emerald Ash Borer traps are a purple prism covered with sticky stuff.

The black Lindgren trap catches bark beetles. They fall into the container at the bottom.

 

[JDgreen227]

The Emerald Ash Borer traps are a purple prism covered with sticky stuff.

The black Lindgren trap catches bark beetles. They fall into the container at the bottom.

My search turned up the purple traps...will now check for the Lindgren trap...thanks.

 

[deepNdirt]

It's good that someone... more than likely ( Forestry dept. ) are Monitoring for beetle activity, Once beetles get into a forest they can destroy hundreds if not thousands of acres in a very short time, and if gone undetected a forest can become a disaster/hazard zone for fallen tree's, Not a pleasant site to see, its been 15 years since the pine beetles hit in our area, finally all the fallen tree's have rotted away, and I'm able to clear & thin out between the hardwoods that are remain standing,

 

[JDgreen227]

It's good that someone... more than likely ( Forestry dept. ) are Monitoring for beetle activity, Once beetles get into a forest they can destroy hundreds if not thousands of acres in a very short time, and if gone undetected a forest can become a disaster/hazard zone for fallen tree's, Not a pleasant site to see, its been 15 years since the pine beetles hit in our area, finally all the fallen tree's have rotted away, and I'm able to clear & thin out between the hardwoods that are remain standing,

Odd thing is, there are no commercially forested areas around here (north of Lansing) UNLESS you count the Christmas tree farms, and there are a multitude of those. Thanks much to all for the prompt responses. Wish I had asked you guys two years ago!!!