What are Those Purple Boxes in Trees?

Maybe you've noticed the purple boxes hanging from trees along the road in Hamilton and Wenham.

We've seen them at the West Wenham Playground and along Larch Row in Wenham and there's likely many more out there.

The boxes are part of a an effort to lure and monitor beetles - Emerald ash borer, to be exact.

The beetles arrived recently in Massachusetts and kill North American ash trees, according to the Trustees of The Reservations, which owns and operates Appleton Farms and many other properties in the state.

The boxes are placed there by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation's Forest Health program. The traps use Manuka oil to lure the beetles, which are trapped with a sticky covering.

There are more than 700 monitoring boxes in trees statewide.