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With just a couple of weeks left before Christmas, those who celebrate likely have their lights up and a tree on display. The holidays are a time when homes are especially cozy and peaceful, but that tranquility can be harshly disrupted by an innocent-seeming, barely noticeable, tiny, brown clump that could be hanging on your Christmas tree right now.
The walnut-sized object might be quietly hiding among your shiny tinsel and colorful ornaments that have been passed down for generations, but if you don't get rid of it faster than Santa drops down a chimney, you will be pretty sorry. That's because the small, pine cone-shaped object is an egg sac, and it's holding a few hundred little baby praying mantises that are likely very ready to hatch in your warm home.
A Cleveland man discovered two in his tree and posted a warning for others on Facebook.
It turns out the coziness of your home is exactly what causes the problem. The eggs on the trees are meant to be kept cool outside through the winter and then hatch in the spring, when the insects in the egg can survive. However, when the tree is brought into your toasty home, the higher temps cause the eggs to hatch and all the mantises inside to emerge, only to then starve and die. At that point, you have to clean up all those bugs.
According to the comments on the post, the nightmarish scenario has happened to quite a number of people. One person wrote, "We had a tree with one in and we didn't know until they hatched. They were everywhere," while another said, "That s**t happened to me a few years ago, it was crazy, went to my in laws' house came back to a bunch of little bugs, found out they were praying mantises." Someone else stated, "I think I have PTSD from when it happened to us."
It's no big deal if you do find an egg sac in your tree, at least if you get to it early. If you do spot one, don't worry, you don't need to toss the whole evergreen out and get a new one. Instead, just clip off the branch that the egg sac is on and simply put it outside.