The real versus artificial Christmas tree debate replays itself year after year. The truth is, each option has its own merits. Just a few short decades ago, displaying a Christmas tree in your living room really only yielded one option: a real pine or fir tree. That all changed when a U.S.-based toilet bowl brush manufacturer, the Addis Brush Company, created an artificial tree from brush bristles in the 1930s, acting as the prototype for modern artificial trees.

If you are like many others and prefer the real, you need to beware of bugs.

Aphids might not be harmful to humans, but they can still be founding hanging around the home. Be mindful not to kill them because they leave a terrible stain. Then there are Adelgids. These little pests look like snow before they hatch they have a tendency to relieve the tree out of its sap.

IMAGE SOURCE: DAYLILIES

There are also sawflies and bark beetles, the praying mantis, and the pine needle scale. These super-tiny bugs appear as a film on the pine needles that is almost whitest. Then there are spiders and mites. Although there are mites everywhere (ew) on our skin, and in our homes, did you know they can live in your tree? They sure can.

IMAGE SOURCE: FS.USDA.GOV

IMAGE SOURCE: BLOG.NWF.ORG

IMAGE SOURCE: ADAIR TREE CARE

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