Minnesota Residents: If You See This In Your Christmas Tree, Throw It Out
If you or your family have a real Christmas tree in your home, hopefully you did a little bit of an inspection before you decorated it. If not, you might want to do a quick check anyway. I guess I have never thought about something living in a tree that you get from a tree farm or even at one of those big box stores, but it was a living thing in the great outdoors for years, so yes, that could be a very real possibility.
I am not sure if these trees get inspected before you buy them or not, but it really comes down to buying at your own risk. Of all the things you might find in a tree, I would never have thought of this particular bug, ever.
So what is something you need to look for? If you see a walnut size brown sack in your tree, cut off that branch and get it out of your house immediately. To me, it looks like a small bee hive, and you are not going to like what is inside.
What are the chances of a tree with this type of nest in them to be found in Northern Minnesota? According to Minnesotaseasons.com, there are many different types of praying mantis. Only two types are found in Minnesota, generally the southernmost part of the state.
The lifecycle of these insects is the female lays eggs in one of those "paper" type nests, and they hatch in the springtime.
The problem is, if you do have one of these nests in your tree, the warm temperature in your house could cause the baby insects to hatch and you could end up with 50 to 100 tiny preying mantis running around your living room. OMG! I would die! I'm not a fan of bugs, but again if you purchase your tree from the region, you should be safe. Check out the video below of a nest in a garden in Minnesota.