Gifts are great, but the last thing you need under your tree on Christmas morning are hundreds of baby praying mantises.
Families across the country have been sharing their stories of praying mantis egg sacs attached to their Christmas trees and warning others to comb through all the branches to prevent a creepy-crawly surprise.
“Christmas tree came with another praying mantis nest…. third time,” one family in Ohio said on Facebook. “Luckily we know to look for them before they hatch in the house again.”
Praying mantis egg sacs are called ootheca and look like brown foam insulation, according to the University of Illinois. The sacs are often found on twigs, stems or rocks — making Christmas trees a perfect host.
“I knew instantly what it was. It was the size of a walnut. Sooooo glad I found it now. I don’t need 200, 300 baby praying mantis loose in my house,” one Cincinnati woman said. “I cut the branch off the tree (without) harming the ootheca and put it in the backyard.”
One family told WBRC it would be sticking to a fake tree for years to come after finding hatched baby mantises in the branches.
Here’s the thing about praying mantis babies — the more you look, the more you see.
“I first saw one on our baseboard in our kitchen and then another on our dog treat container and then started looking around,” Rebecca Howard told WBRC. “I immediately freaked out when I saw five on our ceiling above the tree, then probably 15 on just one curtain panel!”
The eggs usually hatch in the spring, but the warmth of people’s homes can jump start the process and lead to hundreds of mantises on your tree, Cleveland Museum of Natural History Science Curator Gavin J. Svenson told WOIO in a 2017 interview.
“Putting the egg case outside quickly is critical if you want them to survive normally to hatch in the spring,” Svenson told WOIO. “The egg cases are susceptible to rot from too much moisture, so placing on the ground or on a surface will not work out for them. Affixing the case to an elevated branch works best.”
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