The Best Way To Prevent Bugs From Sneaking Into Your Home Through Your Christmas Tree

Whether you're a real or artificial Christmas tree person, there's something about that fresh pine smell that makes a home feel ultra-cozy and warm during the holidays. However, there's one big drawback to buying a natural tree every year: finding those tiny bugs nestled away that are ready to tour your home while you're sleeping. While Christmas tree sellers do their best to shake off any hidden bugs between the branches, giving your tree a good clean before taking it inside your home is best. A leaf blower is an excellent way to get through all the tight branches and remove any eggs and bugs that are hanging on tight.

Bugs tend to hibernate in trees over the winter, so when their home is cut down and sold as a Christmas tree, they travel wherever the holiday spirit takes them. A few bug species that tend to hibernate in these trees are adelgids, aphids, spiders, bark beetles, and mantises, and while they're harmless to the indoors, eggs hidden within your tree can mature and infest your home, making it even more difficult to get rid of the pests. Some insects won't often survive in a home if it has low humidity and no food to keep them alive, but you should still make a concerted effort to remove any insects from your natural Christmas tree before taking it inside.

When purchasing your Christmas tree, ask the salesperson helping you to give your tree the best shake they can to remove any insects living on it. A shake before putting it on the roof of your car reduces the amount of potential arthropods you take home. The trees wrapped with string are also culprits of carrying unwanted arthropods, so it's a good idea to take it home unwrapped to allow the air to push bugs off the branches. Once you get home, lay your tree unwrapped on the driveway, grab your leafblower, and run it over the entire tree. Aim the leafblower from the trunk so it blows air up through the bottom of the tree to get through the branches angled downward. Then, lift the tree by its trunk and blow the underside. Flip it multiple times until you feel that your Christmas tree is safe and bug-free.

If you do your best to eliminate all the arthropods possible, but you still somehow find an arthropod or two in your home, you can easily get rid of them with another common household appliance. While you want to keep your home and Christmas tree pest-free, don't apply insect sprays to get rid of your bug problem. These pest control formulas are highly flammable and can cause significant issues if your tree catches fire. In the case of a critter or two, just use your vacuum to suck up those fleeing insects.