The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection is warning Wisconsin residents that a small pest may have made its way into your home, through your Christmas decorations.
The small insect is known as the Elongate Hemlock Scale, and according to Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, it tends to damage trees by inserting their threadlike, piercing-sucking mouthparts into needles and withdraw vital nutrients necessary for plant growth from mesophyll cells.
The insect is not usually found in Wisconsin, but an infested stock pile of fir trees, wreathes and décor from suppliers in North Carolina were sent to the Badger State.
Retailers who received infected trees have destroyed them, but the same cannot necessarily be said for the decorations that were sold.
