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Something is 'bug-ing' Christmas tree growers in New Brunswick

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FREDERICTON -

At Lo-Hi Christmas tree farm, the holiday season is all about creating family traditions.

"We want to have the families come, we want to have the different generations come, we're having trucks come now with a grandfather, and a father, and a little grandchild and some day we'll be selling that grandchild and their children their tree so we want to make it a positive experience,” said David Kirkpatrick, owner of Lo-Hi Christmas Tree Farm.

But this year before trees get trimmed they had to be screened.

"When people are at a few of the farms they're going to probably be notified by the farmer that there was a bug that went around this year, it's come and gone, it laid a little egg and went away and died, it'll come back again in about 12 years," Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick says the midge is just one of those secrets of nature where the conditions have to be just right.

Trees that were infected just need a couple of years to recuperate before you can bring them home to decorate.

"Our trees have it and other farmer's trees have it, we're just simply not cutting it and we'll give it a few years to recover, we'll move on," he said.

The bugs only appear every 12-15 years, typically following a drought year, such as 2020 in New Brunswick.

"They were here, they're gone, they're not going to be flying around your living room by no means.”

Kirkpatrick says not to worry, but get your tree early, the perfect one is out there for everyone.

"The perfect tree for my family is usually the one that's left over, at the end of the year we usually just put up a small tree every year people come to our house and say that's the tree you put up, but the perfect tree every year everybody's going to walk by and there's going to be one person that that's the perfect tree to."

Making sure you can still rock around your Christmas tree and have a happy holiday.

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