02 December 2023 , 10:26
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A mum made a stomach-churning discovery while putting up a Christmas tree after the pine needles "hatched a million friends."
Andrea and her family, from Ohio, were excited to erect the festive tree in her family home after she had cut it down and given it a firm shake. However, the mum was stunned to find a plague of praying mantises hatching all over the tree as the white insects could be seen all over the branches - to Andrea's horror.
The sickening incident, which happened in 2018 and saw over 4 million views according to the Daily Star, has resurfaced after Andrea recently posted a TikTok video to warn other families of the possible infestations of Christmas trees. Andrea, who goes by @andeekitty on TikTok, wrote over a compilation of photos showing the creepy infestation: “That time our tree hatched a million friends."
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Millions of creepy little bugs hatched inside a Christmas tree (@andeekitty/tiktok)In the first picture, dozens of white insects could be seen covering the pine needles of the tree, before showing three close-up shots of the bugs. "Only fake trees from now on," Andrea wrote over the photos.
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She captioned the post: "Beware of the real trees." In another video explaining what happened, Andrea warned: "If you're going to get a real tree this year just make sure that you thoroughly inspect it. We had real trees every year for years growing up and I never had any issue so I didn't know that you needed to inspect the thing or clean it or whatever."
The woman was horrified to find the bugs (@andeekitty/tiktok)
Millions of the bugs had infested the tree (@andeekitty/tiktok)The horrifying experience saw hundreds of people comment saying they had the same issue when putting their Christmas tree up. "Yep!! Happened to me 2 years ago. Nobody believes me when I say we had THOUSANDS of praying mantis in our tree and house," one person recalled.
Another said: "We had this same thing happen when I was in middle school. My mother cried her eyes out while trying to collect them."
A third added: "Had this happen ONE time! Cut our tree on a beautiful tree farm. Never again!! Thousands of praying mantis!!" Others saw the funnier side. One person joked: "12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping, 1,133 prayers praying." Another added: "The tree really said, ‘Let us pray.'"
They were on nearly every branch (@andeekitty/tiktok)Some users, however, had a creepier experience including a tree full of spider babies. One user commented: "Last real tree had spider babies. Cat knocked the tree over and 400 trillion baby spiders went in 900 different directions. I almost burnt the house down."
Another revealed a heartbreaking story, commenting: "Mine was filled with Brown recluse spiders with a bunch of babies. My whole house was covered and my puppy was bitten on his nose and died within 2hrs." A third wrote: "My last real tree launched thousands of spiders. We threw it right out the front door and will NEVER get another real one again."