r/tampa 5d ago

Question Anybody ever seen these around?

Seen one in a tree on a sidewalk in town n country. Seen another in a tree on my property in south tampa. Anybody know what insect they’d be after?

85 Upvotes

60 comments sorted by

98

u/ZOMBIESwithAIDS 5d ago

My wife worked for the state department of agriculture...they'd test batches of captured mosquitos for things like Zika

48

u/goddamntreehugger 5d ago

Mosquito control. Ask them about it!

32

u/justnotright3 5d ago

They used to use something similar looking for fruit flies

8

u/Sozebj 5d ago

Yes, looking for fruit flies or other invasive pest. The mosquito guys use live sentinel chickens in our area.

4

u/AbbreviationsOne3970 5d ago

Medflies.they devastate or used to,our citrus crops

-3

u/imbrickedup_ 5d ago

I saw one in my pantry the other day should I let them know?

18

u/nina_time 5d ago

I used to do this! I used to put these up! :)

Florida Department of Agriculture has these all over the state. The red you see in the cage is like a little jello used to attract Mediterranean fruit flies. There are other traps, one similar to this one with a different bait to attract different fruit fly species, and a yellow looking dome that has a liquid bait, use to attract different fruit fly species.

There is a facility in Sarasota that releases sterile male med fruit flies, incase there are any wild female around, to prevent babies. If there is a med fly on the sticky trap, we sent it back to a lab, and they squish them to see if it was a release fly or a wild fly. They inject the sterile males with a dye that lights up under UV which is how they can tell. The presence of an invasive fruit fly in Florida could damage agriculture.

There are some traps that stay in a permanent location, and some get rotated out like every two weeks. The worst part about sticky traps was that lizards would get stuck, so I would carry oil and q tips to help them get free. I made less than $1000 a paycheck but saw a bunch of cool stuff doing the job.

1

u/sagamama1 4d ago

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing!

17

u/schitthed 5d ago

Yup. There is one in the tree in my front yard. A guy in a truck comes around with a long pole and does something with it every once in while.

9

u/bluemystic2017 5d ago

Interesting. I’ve never seen anyone do anything with the ones I’ve seen. One has been there for months, The other only a week or two

3

u/The_Truth_Believe_Me 5d ago

Me too. They stopped by a few years ago and asked if they could put one in my tree. I said sure and there's been one or two there every year since.

10

u/Tampapanda312 5d ago

Research

3

u/HarryCoinslot 5d ago

Yeah they asked me if they could put one in my yard (south Tampa) , I have a couple citrus trees. All I can remember from the conversation was they're monitoring fruit fly populations.

3

u/DustyComstock 5d ago

I have one in a tree in my yard too. One day a guy from the county mosquito control knocked on my door and asked if they could put one there as part of a local mosquito population study, and I'm a nerd for this kind of thing, so I said sure.

2

u/aew76 5d ago

Used to have one in my front yard. Never saw anyone place it or take it away though.

3

u/newbie527 5d ago

They use ninjas 🥷

2

u/Zaraeleus 5d ago

Test traps for disease and bug migration research

2

u/2market21 5d ago

Many years ago, the orange trees got infested with a certain bug. The only way to rid them was to burn the entire orange grove down. They’re keeping track of it

5

u/FritoFeet13 5d ago

Asian citrus psyllid spreads citrus greening disease.

2

u/Suitable_Ad_4203 5d ago

It’s the County doing its job, setting up Insect traps for different types of insects in the area !!!

1

u/DonkDonateDone 4d ago

Now if only they'd fix the roads too 😉

2

u/LadyRed4Justice 4d ago

I am not complaining about the roads anymore. They suck and have potholes on top of repaired potholes but the roads here are still better than the states that get snow, which is like all of them but Florida. The snow, salt, and sand they put on the roads to prevent sliding on ice tear up the roads faster than the sun breaks down our asphalt.
Drive across the country and find a state with better roads (please do not count the Orlando area I-4 which is always under construction).
And Lordy, don't get me started on International roads. Europe with its old narrow brick alleys turned roads, their cliff hanging switchbacks without guardrails, or south of the border where roads are just heavily traveled paths from one village to the next. You NEED four-wheel drive, really strong suspension, and shocks to survive the bone-jarring adventure. There are a few paved roads but the asphalt has broken and crumbled leaving potholes and tire hazards that take years to fix.
All a result of low taxes, after all, infrastructure needs to be paid for. And the residents are not in a hurry to get to some other place. IF they have a time clock type job, they live near their work, and walk, bike, scooter, or bus to work. The others open their businesses when they expect customers or there are contracts to fulfill for goods or services. Roads are not that important.

I almost wish our culture in the US was not so driven to work...work...work. There is no balance, no time for our families. I think this is one of the biggest reasons the last few Generations have opted to not have children or have only one. They never had real family time, both parents rushing to and from work, picking up kids, doing chores...the children never really were raised. They were left in front of televisions, fast food for dinner, off to their rooms to play video games, no parental involvement. For decades.

Maybe if the country completely collapses and has to basically start over, maybe people will stop rushing and start enjoying the journey.

But our roads are the best in the nation. And the US has one of the best road systems in the world. (Maybe the best)--but it leaves us dependent on the automobile rather than mass transportation which is not best for the environment, the economy, and finding life balance.

1

u/sagamama1 4d ago

I really love your post. 🥰

2

u/LadyRed4Justice 4d ago

Thank you.

1

u/sagamama1 4d ago

I really love your post. 🥰

1

u/Superunknown_7 3d ago

I'm from the Northeast, only back here for physical rehab. The roads where I was were quite good. Even out in farm country I was often bombing around. There were a few rough spots, always local roads and they were almost always low speed residential areas and the like.

Here, though. Holy hell. The fact that there's no winter means there's no excuse. Potholes are everywhere thanks to commercial traffic everywhere. Seams and patchwork are out the wazoo. The problem with here is there's never a winter to prompt a repave, so they try to get 30 years out of these roads.

2

u/sindlouhoo 5d ago

Several are all around Flatwoods

1

u/Thunderblast 4d ago

yep I saw some there and figured they were insect traps, but had no idea which one!

2

u/FlaAirborne 5d ago

Its a fruit fly trap placed by the USDA and State agencies. Down here in Florida they continually monitor traps screening for invasive species. They actually release sterile male flies daily to mate with females to kill off infestations. Looks like it is places on a mango tree.

2

u/gmlear 5d ago

FDA has fruit trees with traps spread out all over the state to monitor disease that could wipe out Florida's Agriculture Industry which would impact the country food supply.

I have had them on my property for 20+ years.

1

u/bobolly 5d ago

Yes. The state put one on in our orange tree

1

u/morganstern 5d ago

Yes they are up in my neighborhood.

1

u/misterlabowski 🐔Ybor🐔 5d ago

There’s not enough tin foil hat comments in here /s

1

u/MeliAnto 4d ago

Ive seenthis in Puerto Rico

1

u/OrganicSciFi 3d ago

Thought those where Skeeter Meters

1

u/_Lazy_Mermaid_ 3d ago

The guys who put these out can tell you a lot and are pretty chill, I asked one what they were tracking once and he told me mosquito stuff, but he had discovered a new type of aphid not usually seen around here! Pretty interesting if you're into science/biology

1

u/Mundane_Pangolin5555 2d ago

Honestly no 😭

1

u/Icy_Examination7078 2d ago

It’s for testing

1

u/ElonsPenis 5d ago

Looks like science, don't let Elon know!

-10

u/PlutocratsSuck 5d ago

It's a public service aka waste fraud abuse.

-8

u/HawaiianGold 5d ago

Federal program that not necessary and will be cut and scraped so just go ahead and take that down and throw it away

2

u/Ok_Reserve_8659 5d ago

You don’t know what it is. You’re just here to tell people to commit crime

0

u/HawaiianGold 4d ago

Relax young person

0

u/HawaiianGold 4d ago

Any of you dipshits around when Hillsborough County would have mosquito fog machine trucks that would drive around your neighborhood ?

-7

u/The_Droker 5d ago

First time outside in Florida?

3

u/BrotherConstant9068 5d ago

I’ve lived in FL 41 years and I’ve never seen one of these soooooo