November 18, 2025 • 9 mins
A thousand baby praying mantises. Wolf spiders. A literal possum named Bobby O’Possum. The crew dives into the wild, real-life stories of people who brought home Christmas trees… and discovered entire ecosystems hiding inside. Gandhi wants all of it. Everyone else wants to move out.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Get your hands together, and we're going to stop and
party start.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm ready to party.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
The Elvis ter Ran after Party.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, the party podcast. I remember the name, after Party Podcast.
Just say it like that. So it wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
We were talking about Christmas trees, live Christmas trees, bringing
them into the house, setting them up, decorating, and you
find a critter in the tree, and Gandhi yeah, of
course the rest of us were, no, God, we don't
want that to happen. I don't want to find a
raccoon in my tree. Gandhi would pay money to have
a tree in her house. Yea with a critter living
in it, right, like a.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Woodland creature, like a squirrel, a raccoon, I'd be.
Speaker 6 (00:49):
Monk.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, like the cute sloth, a hedgehog?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah? Whatever, Okay, what about a bunch of spiders? It's
just start.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Is that a woodland creature?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I don't think creature? How about an oh possum?
Speaker 6 (01:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Absolutely, it's so irish.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
I was scared all day, so fake Bobby, Yes, okay.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
So we have some people we found that have actually
found creatures in their trees.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
You want to hear from someone, yes, okay, let's go
talk to Lorena. Hi, Lorena, how are you good?
Speaker 6 (01:20):
How are you man?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Doing great? Doing great?
Speaker 4 (01:23):
So Gandhi has this dream of putting up her live
Christmas tree and finding a critter in there.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, okay, this has happened to you.
Speaker 6 (01:36):
Yes, yes, well the last Christmas tree, because that was
the last one after that issue. We put up the
Christmas tree and decorated it all. And the next morning
I woke up, I went to the living room and
had baby praying mantis all over the living room.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh wait, wait, how many baby praying mantises? Mentisize?
Speaker 6 (02:00):
It had to be like it had to be like
a thousand because they the full all my it was
two windows I had in the living room. The curtains
were filled, I mean completely filled.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
That is so cool, thousands in the curtains.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I think the praygmantis is one of the most beautiful
insects of them. I meant, well take them out, but
how cool for a moment, like how cool?
Speaker 6 (02:23):
No, yes, it actually it was. I I don't have
any issues with bugs, like I don't, you know, unless
it's something attacking me. I let them out, you know.
And the thing is that when we saw it. I
felt so bad because it was December, it was freezing,
and I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
What did you do?
Speaker 6 (02:42):
So my husband, well, I had to let them out
because I couldn't save them in anything. And you know,
I was looking for the mama and I couldn't find her,
so I was like, oh no, so we had to
put them outside. So I don't know, they probably didn't survive.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I'm not a praying mantis expert. I mean, wasn't the
tree outside and you chose it and it was cold there?
Speaker 6 (03:05):
Well, yes it was, Yeah, you're right, it was. But
they were in probably the little the little cocoon or
whatever it was, because they brought him into the warm.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
House we know nothing about.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Okay, So but when you're setting up the tree and
decorating it, you had no clue. You didn't see any
praying mantis because if there were thousands of them, were
they inside the because.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
It was it was inside, So it probably was you know,
on the on the uh, on the tree itself, not
on any of the branches, so I think that it
was on the actual you know, trunk of the tree.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
You know, when my mom was a kid, there a
praying mantis jumped on her lap while she was on
an amusement park ride and she jumped off the ride
and some got somebody caught her.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Oh my god, what a ride.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I don't know how high up the ride was, but
it landed on her lap and she They're not.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Dangerous the humans. For a little kid, it's dangerous and
scared more dangerous.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
They're very very like out of space. Looking. Here's the thing.
Had you found one praying mantis? Will you be okay
with that? It was it was the.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
Multitude, It was the Yeah, it was a lot, and
it was more, you know, because I was like, I
didn't know what to do with it. And it was
not just one or two. There were thousands of them.
And this was before we had the phones that I
could have taken a picture, because I wish I could
have taken a picture of all of that. That was insane.
My husband was like, oh my god, get them out.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Praying mansions are supposed to be very very lucky and
they're very very very spiritual animals creatures. I say, they don't.
They have no clue ab spirit. But anyway, that's I
think that's cool. But you have said you will never
ever have a live tree ever again because of this situation.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
After that happened. It was actually in an apartment, so
we moved and I just didn't get another live tree.
It was like I was after that. I was like,
don't know if I want another. So I just had
a little three foot tree that was perfect for us.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Man, I don't know. It sounds lucky to me.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Thousands, I thought it was amazing. You're nuts.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
When would you ever see that again? In real life?
You probably will never see something like that again. So
like one time in your home.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
It was the.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Differences Lorena had hers in her house with the front door.
You live in an apartment with no windows that open.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Sure, i'd move, but I think that I would like
it for the moment that it was there.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Okay, okay, live for the moment. I will thank you. Lorena,
have a great deal. I don't know. So finding a
critter in the tree, this is it happens all the time.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Right, I have a list. Do you want to hear
some of the things that people have found in trees?
I am not making this up. A kowala wow, yeah,
A raccoon, apossum.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, all three of those could hurt you.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
They could, Yes, a sparrow hawk that sounds like it
could claw your eyes out. A copperhead snake, oh, no,
of all types. You've got spiders, mites, praying manta's egg cases, bagworms, birds, salamanders,
I mean, you name it. It could be in that tree.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, this thing has been growing up in.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Forests and in fields, yeah, for months and months, so
put an opportunity to get some livestock going on there.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
The bigger critters I don't get because I feel like
they you're moving the tree from one location to another,
they would get scared and like jump out or leave
the tree, you know what I mean, Like they hid.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Because they were like, oh, what's happening?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You sare climb up and grab hold.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I got a question about sanitary conditions here, don't they
don't they hose the trees.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Down before they give them to you.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Is there some kind of a process it goes to
between the time it's cut down and.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You can cut down your own tree, you know, you
can go to a place.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I understand that, but like when you see trees all
lined up waiting to be taken home, did they go
through some kind of a process or I mean, I
know it's girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
On the tree.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well hold on, well we'll find out right now, let
me turn on a Scotti button on? Is he on? Yes?
Speaker 5 (07:03):
I can't imagine they sanitize the trees.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
What's up, Scotty. They don't hose them down. You literally
cut them down.
Speaker 7 (07:08):
You put them through the little netting tube and it
nets it up and they throw it on the roof.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That I was thinking that there's no hosing down of trees.
Speaker 8 (07:15):
Scary.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I'm asking only because many of the tellings, now you know,
solve some of these issues. I don't want termites roaming
around my.
Speaker 7 (07:21):
House and they're not sprayed with any pesticide or anything.
They're just it is what it is.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
And you know, and a water hose is not going
to get rid of termites. Water hose may not get
rid of koala bears. I mean they grab on.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Let me say, if I came home and there was
a koala in my home, best Christmas?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Ever?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Do we have koalas living in the Australia? Okay, it
would be amazing a kangaroo out? Why not? So?
Speaker 4 (07:46):
I mean the trees on Megan's farm, maybe do they
have they found critters in some of these trees.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, okay, well no, it's natural. I would die.
Speaker 7 (07:54):
She actually she was showing me a pot on one
of them. She says, you know it's going to come
out of those aunt spiders spiders? Yeah, yeah, so you
really do they check for pods sometimes.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, you gotta look. You gotta check the trees. After
the tree is chosen, before it leaves, you should check.
Let me check.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
It's like, you know, the nurse at school checking for
lice exactly. So okay, any other fun ones, but hold on,
I have another call. Let's see, let's talk to Bridget High. Bridget, Hi,
So you had what in your real tree?
Speaker 8 (08:24):
I had wolf spiders in my real tree.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What's a wolf spider?
Speaker 8 (08:29):
The wolf siders that you guys see outside, like on
the ground, that like those big ones, big ones, Yes,
those big ones. A bunch of them came out.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Yes, you don't want to play with I mean they're not.
Speaker 8 (08:45):
So how many did you find a bunch of There
were babies and then there was like a big mom
on them and it was just infested with the babies
all everywhere. They bite, yes, but that is.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Not considered dangerous to humans that a bike can cause.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Pain, swelling and redness, and it's in your living room,
right above that Christmas gift for grandma.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Oh wow, I would.
Speaker 8 (09:08):
Not no, I would not get another tree again because
of that reason. It was about few years ago when
that happened.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
How did you get rid of all these wolf spiders?
And you think you got rid of all of them?
Speaker 8 (09:19):
We didn't bring it in our house. We just left
it out. We forget it.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, got all right, cool, very Christmas.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Elvis ran after party
Get your hands together, and we're going to stop and
party start.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm ready to party.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
The Elvis ter Ran after Party.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, the party podcast. I remember the name, after Party Podcast.
Just say it like that. So it wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
We were talking about Christmas trees, live Christmas trees, bringing
them into the house, setting them up, decorating, and you
find a critter in the tree, and Gandhi yeah, of
course the rest of us were, no, God, we don't
want that to happen. I don't want to find a
raccoon in my tree. Gandhi would pay money to have
a tree in her house. Yea with a critter living
in it, right, like a.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Woodland creature, like a squirrel, a raccoon, I'd be.
Speaker 6 (00:49):
Monk.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, like the cute sloth, a hedgehog?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah? Whatever, Okay, what about a bunch of spiders? It's
just start.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Is that a woodland creature?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I don't think creature? How about an oh possum?
Speaker 6 (01:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Absolutely, it's so irish.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
I was scared all day, so fake Bobby, Yes, okay.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
So we have some people we found that have actually
found creatures in their trees.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
You want to hear from someone, yes, okay, let's go
talk to Lorena. Hi, Lorena, how are you good?
Speaker 6 (01:20):
How are you man?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Doing great? Doing great?
Speaker 4 (01:23):
So Gandhi has this dream of putting up her live
Christmas tree and finding a critter in there.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, okay, this has happened to you.
Speaker 6 (01:36):
Yes, yes, well the last Christmas tree, because that was
the last one after that issue. We put up the
Christmas tree and decorated it all. And the next morning
I woke up, I went to the living room and
had baby praying mantis all over the living room.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh wait, wait, how many baby praying mantises? Mentisize?
Speaker 6 (02:00):
It had to be like it had to be like
a thousand because they the full all my it was
two windows I had in the living room. The curtains
were filled, I mean completely filled.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
That is so cool, thousands in the curtains.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I think the praygmantis is one of the most beautiful
insects of them. I meant, well take them out, but
how cool for a moment, like how cool?
Speaker 6 (02:23):
No, yes, it actually it was. I I don't have
any issues with bugs, like I don't, you know, unless
it's something attacking me. I let them out, you know.
And the thing is that when we saw it. I
felt so bad because it was December, it was freezing,
and I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
What did you do?
Speaker 6 (02:42):
So my husband, well, I had to let them out
because I couldn't save them in anything. And you know,
I was looking for the mama and I couldn't find her,
so I was like, oh no, so we had to
put them outside. So I don't know, they probably didn't survive.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I'm not a praying mantis expert. I mean, wasn't the
tree outside and you chose it and it was cold there?
Speaker 6 (03:05):
Well, yes it was, Yeah, you're right, it was. But
they were in probably the little the little cocoon or
whatever it was, because they brought him into the warm.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
House we know nothing about.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Okay, So but when you're setting up the tree and
decorating it, you had no clue. You didn't see any
praying mantis because if there were thousands of them, were
they inside the because.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
It was it was inside, So it probably was you know,
on the on the uh, on the tree itself, not
on any of the branches, so I think that it
was on the actual you know, trunk of the tree.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
You know, when my mom was a kid, there a
praying mantis jumped on her lap while she was on
an amusement park ride and she jumped off the ride
and some got somebody caught her.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Oh my god, what a ride.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I don't know how high up the ride was, but
it landed on her lap and she They're not.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Dangerous the humans. For a little kid, it's dangerous and
scared more dangerous.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
They're very very like out of space. Looking. Here's the thing.
Had you found one praying mantis? Will you be okay
with that? It was it was the.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
Multitude, It was the Yeah, it was a lot, and
it was more, you know, because I was like, I
didn't know what to do with it. And it was
not just one or two. There were thousands of them.
And this was before we had the phones that I
could have taken a picture, because I wish I could
have taken a picture of all of that. That was insane.
My husband was like, oh my god, get them out.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Praying mansions are supposed to be very very lucky and
they're very very very spiritual animals creatures. I say, they don't.
They have no clue ab spirit. But anyway, that's I
think that's cool. But you have said you will never
ever have a live tree ever again because of this situation.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
After that happened. It was actually in an apartment, so
we moved and I just didn't get another live tree.
It was like I was after that. I was like,
don't know if I want another. So I just had
a little three foot tree that was perfect for us.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Man, I don't know. It sounds lucky to me.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Thousands, I thought it was amazing. You're nuts.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
When would you ever see that again? In real life?
You probably will never see something like that again. So
like one time in your home.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
It was the.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Differences Lorena had hers in her house with the front door.
You live in an apartment with no windows that open.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Sure, i'd move, but I think that I would like
it for the moment that it was there.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Okay, okay, live for the moment. I will thank you. Lorena,
have a great deal. I don't know. So finding a
critter in the tree, this is it happens all the time.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Right, I have a list. Do you want to hear
some of the things that people have found in trees?
I am not making this up. A kowala wow, yeah,
A raccoon, apossum.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, all three of those could hurt you.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
They could, Yes, a sparrow hawk that sounds like it
could claw your eyes out. A copperhead snake, oh, no,
of all types. You've got spiders, mites, praying manta's egg cases, bagworms, birds, salamanders,
I mean, you name it. It could be in that tree.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, this thing has been growing up in.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Forests and in fields, yeah, for months and months, so
put an opportunity to get some livestock going on there.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
The bigger critters I don't get because I feel like
they you're moving the tree from one location to another,
they would get scared and like jump out or leave
the tree, you know what I mean, Like they hid.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Because they were like, oh, what's happening?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You sare climb up and grab hold.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I got a question about sanitary conditions here, don't they
don't they hose the trees.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Down before they give them to you.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Is there some kind of a process it goes to
between the time it's cut down and.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You can cut down your own tree, you know, you
can go to a place.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I understand that, but like when you see trees all
lined up waiting to be taken home, did they go
through some kind of a process or I mean, I
know it's girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
On the tree.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well hold on, well we'll find out right now, let
me turn on a Scotti button on? Is he on? Yes?
Speaker 5 (07:03):
I can't imagine they sanitize the trees.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
What's up, Scotty. They don't hose them down. You literally
cut them down.
Speaker 7 (07:08):
You put them through the little netting tube and it
nets it up and they throw it on the roof.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That I was thinking that there's no hosing down of trees.
Speaker 8 (07:15):
Scary.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I'm asking only because many of the tellings, now you know,
solve some of these issues. I don't want termites roaming
around my.
Speaker 7 (07:21):
House and they're not sprayed with any pesticide or anything.
They're just it is what it is.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
And you know, and a water hose is not going
to get rid of termites. Water hose may not get
rid of koala bears. I mean they grab on.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Let me say, if I came home and there was
a koala in my home, best Christmas?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Ever?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Do we have koalas living in the Australia? Okay, it
would be amazing a kangaroo out? Why not? So?
Speaker 4 (07:46):
I mean the trees on Megan's farm, maybe do they
have they found critters in some of these trees.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, okay, well no, it's natural. I would die.
Speaker 7 (07:54):
She actually she was showing me a pot on one
of them. She says, you know it's going to come
out of those aunt spiders spiders? Yeah, yeah, so you
really do they check for pods sometimes.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, you gotta look. You gotta check the trees. After
the tree is chosen, before it leaves, you should check.
Let me check.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
It's like, you know, the nurse at school checking for
lice exactly. So okay, any other fun ones, but hold on,
I have another call. Let's see, let's talk to Bridget High. Bridget, Hi,
So you had what in your real tree?
Speaker 8 (08:24):
I had wolf spiders in my real tree.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What's a wolf spider?
Speaker 8 (08:29):
The wolf siders that you guys see outside, like on
the ground, that like those big ones, big ones, Yes,
those big ones. A bunch of them came out.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Yes, you don't want to play with I mean they're not.
Speaker 8 (08:45):
So how many did you find a bunch of There
were babies and then there was like a big mom
on them and it was just infested with the babies
all everywhere. They bite, yes, but that is.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Not considered dangerous to humans that a bike can cause.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Pain, swelling and redness, and it's in your living room,
right above that Christmas gift for grandma.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Oh wow, I would.
Speaker 8 (09:08):
Not no, I would not get another tree again because
of that reason. It was about few years ago when
that happened.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
How did you get rid of all these wolf spiders?
And you think you got rid of all of them?
Speaker 8 (09:19):
We didn't bring it in our house. We just left
it out. We forget it.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, got all right, cool, very Christmas.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Elvis ran after party
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