7 Common Christmas Tree Bugs and How to Get Rid of Them

Ve Common Christmas Tree Critters AND HOW TO GET RID OF THEM You've picked the perfect freshly-cut Christmas tree and brought it into your warm home but you also unknowingly invited hundreds of hibernating insects inside the tree who will wake up thinking it's spring. There could be up to 25-30 million 25,000 bugs real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. every year in one Christmas tree Most microscopic bugs living in the tree aren't dangerous to people and they quickly die from starvation or desiccation outside of nature. Below are seven common insects you might find lurking inside your Christmas tree. 00 Aphids • Can be found on lower boughs of tree • Common in evergreen, pine, balsam fir, spruce, Fraser fir, white fir trees • Don't squash them on furniture as they will leave a purple or red stain Spiders & Mites • Look for tiny red and brown dots • Commonly found on Douglas-fir, white pine, Fraser fir, spruce trees • Mites can cause premature needle drop and make small red stains on ornaments or carpet © Adelgids • Resembles a dusting of snow on the tree • Common in fır trees, white pine, Norway spruce, and Scotch pine 6 Sawfly Pine Needle Scale • Brown cocoons that hatch black and • Look for white specs on the needles or branches and tiny red bugs yellow flies • Found on spruce and pine trees when hatched • Commonly found on Scotch pine, Norway spruce, and Douglas-fir Bark Beetles • Cylindrical, hard-bodied, red/ O Praying Mantises brown/black bugs about the size of a grain of rice • Common on Monterey pines, ponderosa, Coulter pines, Jeffrey pine, white fir and junipers • Look for light tan, walnut-sized egg mass (which can contain up to 400 eggs) • Can be on any type of tree • Look for small holes and sawdust trails on trunk e 5 Steps to Prevent Unwanted Christmas Surprises When choosing a tree, examine the undersides of branches and the trunk. Prune any branches you find with egg cases or bird nests. Leave the Christmas tree in your garage for a few days. Shake the tree vigorously outside or over a white sheet to dislodge any bugs. Vacuum up any insects on the tree or that you see in the area after the tree has been up. Dust the tree with Diatomaceous Earth or spray with neem oil to kill any bugs still on the tree. * Do not spray aerosol pesticides on the tree as they are usually flammable. Safer SOURCES: Science Daily | PennState Department of Entomology | Virginia Tech Department of Entomology| Bugwood.org| Influentialpoints.com | Dean Morley - Flickr.com Nicholas A. Tonelli - Flickr.com| BRA ND