What appears to be your everyday bur isn't exactly what you may think.

Wolly oak leaf galls have been popping up across the Valley, and you may be surprised to what they are.

"These are just a wasp insect that lays an egg on the leaf on the twig, and then these grow," says Eric Barrett, Area Educator with the Ohio State University Extension Mahoning County. 

These wasp eggs are laid on red oak leaves and use the leaf tissue to develop into the adult wasp. But are the galls dangerous to trees or even to people?

"They're not going to sting you, they're not going to bother you, this insect is something you'll probably ever notice in an adult of any kind, so you'll just notice the galls on trees," says Barrett. 

An adult Wolly Gall wasp only grows to around 1 millimeter in length, and according to Barett, there's not a lot of research being done on the Wolly Gall because they're not harmful.

Despite the high amounts of eggs this year, a high increase is pretty standard. 

"So if they have suddenly had some kind of a natural enemy, it may be a fungus, or insect, or another predator the population might decline quite a bit if that predator or that disease is able to take hold within that insect population and then when they get to a lower level they'll regrow that population," says Barrett. 

The good news, Wolly Oak Galls aren't harmful to you or your trees, but they may be a good science lesson if you spot them around your yard.