Angela Rouege shared a video on TikTok that her son took of their Christmas tree infested with baby praying mantises hatching out of their eggs and invading the living room.
The family’s red-flocked Christmas tree they brought home apparently had the creatures on it and Angela and the family didn’t know it until they had already put it up in their home and started spotting the bugs everywhere.
The video showed the little white praying mantis eggs anchored in on the tree branches ready to hatch at any moment, along with hundreds of baby praying mantises that had already hatched and were perched up on the branches climbing around as they took their first steps in life.
Angela can be heard in the background freaking out and screaming as her son took his camera phone and zoomed in on the bugs as he investigated them and commentated on what he was seeing.
“They are everywhere on this tree, and I’m itching like a [explicit],” he said in the video.
“Just get this tree out,” Angela said before screaming for her husband, “Corey!”
Praying mantises were on the tree, they were on the wall, they were on the ceiling, they were everywhere!
The video has received more than 2.2 million views in just four days with hundreds of people commenting on the invasion.
“I raise praying mantises, they are cute and harmless. Each egg sac though can hatch between 50-200 babies,” someone commented on the TikTok post.
“At least it wasn’t spiders or bees,” a person joked.
“This isn’t that uncommon which is why you should always check your Christmas trees before bringing them inside,” a user wrote.
“Baby the fire department wouldn’t have been able to put out the fire I set,” a TikToker replied.
“The one and only time my parents bought a real tree and this same thing happened, they never bought another real tree the rest of my childhood,” another added.