In autumn, females lay their eggs in fruit trees.
To prevent this, hobby gardeners set traps - but they also become fatal for other animals.
At the beginning of autumn, many hobby gardeners consider how they can prepare their plants and trees for winter * and protect them from pest infestation.
For example, the females, a butterfly, lay their eggs on the leaf buds of the trees.
In spring, the caterpillars hatch and eat the fresh leaves of the trees - something that can be prevented very easily by using glue rings.
Glue rings on fruit trees represent death traps for bats, songbirds and the like
A glue ring is a
sticky film that is placed around the tree trunk and on which the wingless females get caught
.
This prevents them from laying their eggs at the top of the tree.
Unfortunately, the sticky surfaces work so well that
other animals get stuck on them and perish
, as a Facebook post now shows.
The operators of the "Gardens of Horror" account shared a user photo that shows a bat that has got stuck on the glue ring. A bird, which could be a great tit, has also got caught in it.
In the comments under the Facebook post, the users are
mostly horrified by the consequences of the glue ring
: “Terrible!
And is that allowed?
Do you not have to take protective precautions? ”Asks a user.
Another person says, “Oh my god, I'm sad now.
What a terrible death ”.
The Naturschutzbund (NABU) Hadamar also reacted to the photo and wrote: “These photos were taken in our district.
We need more information on this and will look into it! "
Also interesting
: watch out: this is how you plant an apple tree correctly.
Glue rings for fruit trees as a death trap: what can you do?
Glue rings per se are not forbidden, but after a similar case in June 2018, NABU asked not to attach the glue traps
during the bird breeding and bat season
to protect bats and birds
.
Those affected were not aware that glue rings can also become death traps for nocturnal hunters: “Not all bat species catch their insects from the air.
Some like the fringed bat, the Bechstein's bat or the brown long-eared bat regularly collect insects and spiders from surfaces such as leaves, "says Ingrid Kaipf, bat officer at NABU Baden-Württemberg.
That is,
the traps should not be placed between April and October
.
Glue rings attached over the winter should be removed in April at the latest.
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
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