Got a real tree? CHECK IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhh..........didn't it look nice?

-I write that in the past tense, because I've had to strip the tree and smother it with insecticide till it's dripping!

Apparently, aphids hibernate in the winter, and there is nothing they like better to have a snooze in than a nice bushy little tree. Not too big, close to the ground, snug.... erm.... just like this one, actually!

Well, after two days in our living room with the fire on, they woke up thinking it was summertime and therefore.......party-time!

I'd had cards around the foot of the tree and on Thursday morning, went to put another card there, newly arrived. It was then that I noticed something sticky on one of the cards....... sap. Wherever the little ba***rds had nibbled, the tree had produced sticky sap to try to defend itself. It drowns the bug in sticky yuckiness, leaving it immobile. But it doesn't stop it nibbling in the first place, and therefore didn't stop the needles falling. Neither does it do anything to prevent further wee baby aphids from hatching and joining in the fun fun fun.

Stroooof!

Just when I thought I had Christmas licked!

Everyone's coming to our house for Christmas... only had ten days notice of this, but hey! I can handle this! I CAN handle it! I keep telling myself I can. Bought food...........found bigger table in charity shop........... bought decorations in an early sale.......... all done, all OK. Didn't account for aphid invasion in the middle of winter. Silly me.

Hey ho!

So. Take this moral- if you have a real tree, go and examine it. NOW. Before it's too late.

Have a merry, bugless Christmas!