Your amateur consumer advocate is baaaack…
You’ve heard me go on before about certain things that just tighten my jaw, like Fairy Garden Moss, What They Won’t Tell You But I Will and How to Identify an Expert on the Internet, but this one is particularly ludicrous.
I’m not sure where this vicious rumor started but no, the chance of your Christmas tree being “infested” with bugs is so wrong – so “fake news” – it’s incredibly frustrating to see these articles circulating around Facebook and other social media streams.
We’ve been bringing trees inside our home for the holidays for centuries. Now do ya think if there was any real problem we would have heard about it by now? Here are a couple of other points, if I may:
Did you know that bugs don’t like to be bugged? Funnily enough, they are like us and prefer to be comfortable.
One of my favorite organic gardening techniques is to bug the bugs so they can’t set up their nest and lay their eggs. The idea is to keep upsetting the soil where they want to set up house, or slough them off the foliage whenever we see them to force the insects to move-on-down-the-road where the living is easier.
So, you would think if any bug that has set up inside a Christmas tree would surely jump out as soon as the chainsaw hits the trunk, or at least seek safety when the tree hits the ground, or when it gets rolled up in twine, or thrown on to a wagon, or onto a truck… or…. shall I go on? I think you get the gist. That’s a lot of schlepping for a lil’ bug to tolerate, surely he would be running scared at some point. (Yes, I’m assuming the bug is a “he” for some reason… :o)
But, don’t take it from me. Here’s what some of the folks in my Independent Garden Center group are saying about it today:
– “Ridiculous.” (VA)
– “Get real. The percentage of people who have this problem is so low that it’s not worth changing habits for.”(GA)
– “Shows how far we have come in our travels away from common sense.” (MA)
– “Every so often we find a stink bug. That’s the extent of our bugs in tree issue.” (TX)
To exacerbate the issue, we now have professional entomologists claiming that black widow spiders can live in Christmas trees too. Um. Waitaminute. Now I’m not even close to being an amateur entomologist but I do know spiders prefer dark and dry places – not in airy spruce branches that need the rain and the sun to grow. Duh. Oh my poor head!!!
SO, there may be a harmless bug or two on your tree – but the chances of it being “infested” are next to none.
Please don’t let fake news wreck your holiday traditions.
And, oh ya, and always question the absurd when you see it, so others who live in different circles can be warned of fake or ridiculous news too!
See America’s Favorite Miniature Garden Center store for fun and unusual gifts for ANY gardener at TwoGreenThumbs.com
