Your Living Christmas Tree Is Most Likely Crawling With Bugs

The first thing we do when Christmas crosses our mind, is we put a Christmas tree in our home, people prefer a living one. The living Christmas trees are elevating everybody’s Christmas spirit and they are releasing a wonderful smell in the home. However, who dosn’t like a Christmas tree in their home, right?

Before you gather your family around the Christmas tree, be aware that the tree that you put inside your home has spent a lot of time outdoors while it was growing, which makes it a home for some critters. But do not panic even if you see some of them, the wildlife that lives inside your Christmas tree is not harmful for you or dangerous, it doesn’t harm your home in any way. But you might not want them to be in your Christmas tree and your Christmas party as well.

Mites

A lot of species are inside your home at the moment. Mostly they live inside the Fraser fir, white pine, Douglas-fir, and your spruce trees as well. During the winter they are spending the winter as adults and they are becoming alive, when the heat from your home revives them. Do not worry, they are in your Christmas tree as well, but they mean no harm, because they don’t leave their home. They feed with mite eggs and they prey on smaller insects in the tree. They are very tiny, so it is very likely that you won’t even notice them, anyway they are small, they have a light brown color. There is another version of these bugs, which is light red and slightly bigger than these. They are relatives, but are not harmful once they are old enough.

Don’t be surprised even if your Christmas tree is with a little bird’s nest inside it. The bird’s nest should be removed before the tree is sold, because some bird parasites such as these, might pay a visit in your home uninvited.

Aphids

This is another insect that is very likely to appear in your Christmas tree too. This small creature has 6 legs and in fact it is not that small, it can grow up to eight inches. They are not able to fly, which is why they spend most of their lives on the trees. But sometimes they can grow wings, but that is in certain situations. Mostly these creatures are growing wings in the spring. So, when you buy the tree and place it inside your home, where the temperature is higher than outside, this gives them the feeling of spring, which gives them the ability to grow wings. Also spring is their period of hatching, which means the eggs from the Aphids are going to hatch after a short period you’ve placed your tree inside.

The Cinara is one of the most common aphid specie, it is can be found on spruces, pines, Fraser fir, white fir trees, and balsam fir as well. But don’t worry about them, they need to stay inside the tree, because they are feeding from tiny plants that appear on the tree.

Spiders

The spiders that live in your Christmas tree are not dangerous to you, because they prey on the smaller insects and the ones we mentioned earlier that live inside the tree as well. No matter how scary or creepy they look, they are the ones that are maintaining the balance of the bug population in your Christmas tree. The spiders that you might see in your tree are adults, that were revived from the heat, or small baby spiders that were hatched from the heat in your home when you placed the tree inside. But these spiders were made to live outside in the wild, and when you introduce them to the home environment, they will not last for a long time.

The only damage they can do is to spin a few webs around your tree which is truly annoying, but however they are easily removed with your brush or your vacuum cleaner.

Keep The Bugs Out

If you are not okay with the bugs living in your Christmas tree during the holidays, there are a few things you can do to get rid of them. The first thing you want to do is, inspect the trunk and the branches of the tree, just to make sure that there are no eggs that are about to be hatched. Then leave the tree in your garage for a few days, that way the insects will be able to escape the tree. Then before taking it inside, shake it well, so that the bugs from the branches could fall of, and last you can spray it with some neem oil, which will kill the insects that somehow managed to stick to the tree. Be very aware that you should never spray your Christmas tree with insecticides, since they are highly flammable.

But if the process seems too long, and annoying, than why not just get yourself a fake tree. It is as festive as the living one too, therefore you will have no bugs in it and you can enjoy the holidays in peace with your family and friends.

Sources: ento.psu.edu
www.saferbrand.com
insects.about.com