EAB, BBT, PHD, DNR, USDA AND GETTING THE STICKY STUFF OUT OF MY HAIR

EAB...INSECT PUBLIC ENEMY #1

Tuesday,  8:00 AM.  49 degrees F, wind calm.  The sky is clear, the humidity still high at 87%.  The barometer is steady, at 30.06".  It is a beautiful morning.
   The Bayfield Tree Board met yesterday and we had a full morning, the main objective being the taking own and examining of the two big blue Emerald Ash Borer traps we hung in ash trees early last June.  I had intended to take photos of the whole procedure but became so involved that I forgot to do so, or have anyone else take them.  Mea culpa, and on top of that I couldn't find any old EAB trap photos in my archives, so if you want to see what they look like, go to my blog of June 8, 2013, or search for EAB trap on the blog search engine.
   Anyway, we managed to get the traps down from the ash trees we had placed them in and opened them up.  Carefully, as the inside of the traps are a sticky, sticky mess.  We found a whole host of little critters...moths, flies, bugs, beetles...inside, and we all carefully examined the gooey dead insects.
    I have been  sworn to absolute secrecy by all manner of state and federal officials as to my own conclusions or opinions of the contents of the traps, since a positive identification of any trapped Emerald Ash Borers may only be made by a United States Department of Agriculture entomologist stationed in Michigan (and I am on probation, and on my best behavior with the law, since the dog-off-leash incident).
   By the way, I agree wholeheartedly with this procedure as I sure would not want to try to positively identify anything we found in the BBT( Big Blue Trap). Most of the contents were dead long enough that they didn't look like much of anything.  I don't know whether even a PHD bugologist will risk his or her reputation by making a definitive identification.
   But we did our part, well and to the letter, and I scraped together a few suspicious bits of DNA and mailed them to the proper USDA representative in Madison, Wisconsin, who will forward them up the entomological chain of command.  I am told we will find out the results of the autopsies, if that is the proper forensic term, in about a week.  In the meantime I will try to get the sticky stuff off my hands and out of my hair.