Here in Louisiana we love Christmas and we love our live Christmas Trees but we sometimes don't like the surprises setting up a live tree can bring. I am sure you've heard "horror" stories of cats climbing in the Christmas tree or a live woodland creature being brought into the home while hiding among the branches.

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For the most part, those kinds of Christmas surprises show up undetected but if you've purchased, chopped, or are about to select a live Christmas Tree here's a heads up on something you don't want in your home at all.

If you notice a little nodule on the branches of your Christmas Tree, like the one we've pictured above you need to remove that. No, don't bust it open and see if you can peel it off, just cut the branch and go throw it in your flowerbed.

That Lump in Your Christmas Tree isn't a Tiny Pine Cone.

Okay, if you use a pine tree it could be, but chances are at this time of year you wouldn't see this kind of a nodule on a pine tree anyway, that's because that "lump" isn't a cone at all. It's an egg sack filled with hundreds of these.

David Clode via Unsplash.com
David Clode via Unsplash.com
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I must admit if I saw hundreds of those suddenly occupying my home after being born in my Christmas Tree, grandma would be run over by my big a$$ and not some wayward reindeer.

Yeah, the nodules that you'll find on many live Christmas Trees are egg sacks of praying mantises. No, they're not particularly harmful to humans and they are beneficial in the garden but I still don't want them "rockin' around my Christmas Tree".

That's what you're looking for and it's probably a good idea to give the tree a good once-over before you bring it inside. I guess if given the choice I'd take a solitary wild squirrel over a hundred or so baby praying mantises. Wouldn't you?

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