With the Christmas tree, 25,000 insects come into the house - that's where they come to life
Created: 12/21/2022, 2:30 p.m
By: Ines Alms
Lice, spiders and ticks – a lot of bugs come into the house with the Christmas tree.
And when it gets warm in the living room, the animals really thaw out.
Actually, it shouldn't be surprising: Since the Christmas tree is raised in the wild, small creatures also cavort on it - according to a study by the University of Bergen in Norway, there are up to 25,000 insects.
But don't worry, if you take a few precautionary measures, you won't be bothered by the little animals.
Ticks & Co. in the Christmas tree: How to keep bugs away
With the Christmas tree you bring a lot of crawling animals into the house.
© Westend61/Imago
When spruce, Nordmann fir & Co. come out of the cold into the warmth of the house, the tree really comes alive: spiders, bark lice, mites, moths and ticks are the uninvited Christmas guests.
“They hibernate and are completely inactive.
But when the tree is brought into the warmth of the living room, they come back to life,” explains biologist Bjarte Jordal in
Das Erste
.
At over eight degrees Celsius, the insects start crawling to find food.
The good news: not many of the animals in the living room survive without food in the drought.
And most remain directly on the tree or on the bark.
The mites should not pose any danger to allergy sufferers.
With the following measures you will be less bothered by the remaining pests from the Christmas tree:
When choosing a tree, make sure you choose a specimen from the region,
advises
Welt.de.
Many insects live in the trees, especially in monocultures on plantations.
Shake out the tree in front of the front door before you bring it inside.
Regularly check yourself and possibly animals and children for ticks after touching the tree, especially after trimming.
According to the portal
Selbst.de
, an old white bed sheet under the Christmas tree helps to discover fallen insects, especially ticks, until the festival.
You can find even more exciting garden topics in the regular newsletter of our partner 24garten.de.
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If you still don't feel comfortable with it, you can use an artificial Christmas tree or decorate your indoor plants with stars, angel hair and the like.