Couple's home invaded by thousands of Ikea Christmas tree aphids

Thousands of tiny insects have invaded a couple's home after eggs hatched on their Christmas tree. Andy and Stacey Sykes discovered the aphids all over their lounge floor, soon after bringing a fir tree home from Ikea in Nottingham. The pair, from Derby, have now had to chop up their tree after Mrs Sykes said they made her feel "crawly".



"When we came into the house it was fine, nothing there. Plugged the lights in, it was great," said Mrs Sykes. But later they discovered the floor was "covered" in insects. "I feel just all itchy and crawly now, it's not very nice. There were hundreds of them. They weren't mobile, they were lying on their backs twitching their legs," Mr Sykes said.

"I suppose it's a natural thing and it's lived outside for a long time but I've had live Christmas trees for five years. This is a new thing for me. At first I thought there were hundreds and hundreds of spiders on the floor," he said. As they started to chop the tree, more and more insects appeared, so the couple began vacuuming them up.



An Ikea spokesman said some customers had found insects on trees bought at their stores. They could bring them back for a refund, he said. "Live plants and trees are a natural home for insects, however we understand it can be alarming for customers to find these in a tree in their home." The bugs were likely to die within a couple of days, he added.