Christmas is coming and if you decided to purchase a real (once live) Christmas tree you should expect to bring in a few unexpected guests into your home, in the form of insects. A rough estimate puts approximately 75 per cent of Canadians who decorate with a Christmas tree and of those people who do, only 20 per cent use real trees. By using a real tree you are actually bringing in bugs and their rightful home. Yes, Christmas trees are home of many potential bugs including: Adelgids, aphids, bark beetles, mites, psocids, scale insects, spiders, moths, sawflies, weevils, bark lice and webworms. So how do you remove or at least minimize the number of insects on your newly purchased Christmas tree? This process of pest removal should start at the store, so have a good look over the tree of your choosing before buying. First, look around the branches to see if something is moving, if you see insects, move to the next tree. Once you buy your tree, leave in a bucket of water for a few days in the garage, if there are any bugs on it, they will die on their own because of the lack of food and change in the environment. Once you are ready to bring it inside, give it a good shake so any bug corpses can fall right off. It’s not a good idea to leave the bugs on the floor of your garage, so sweep or vacuum them up. There shouldn’t be any insects left, but if you are not convinced you can spray the tree with neem oil, or diatomaceous earth. If by chance any of the abovementioned Christmas tree pests do happen to make it into your house alive, they will not likely survive long.
Go Green Pest Control owner Randy Bilesky is a long-time South Delta resident. Trained and certified, Bilesky has first-hand knowledge of the pest problems that local homeowners and business owners encounter.
