When the Christmas trees arrive in Hawaii from the mainland its always big news. There are newspaper headlines, and television reports. Hawaii residents get excited. Christmas is right around the corner.

Imagine the shock-waves, if you were suddenly told: “No you can’t have a Christmas tree this year.”  It’s almost like the Grinch stole Christmas, once again.

 That is exactly what happened this year when state agriculture inspectors impounded 1,200 Christmas trees.

The agriculture inspectors were checking containers of Christmas trees shipped from the mainland when they discovered an invasive species. The culprit was a kind of yellow jacket wasp which could damage the fragile eco-system in Hawaii.

The plan is for the suspected trees to be taken to an Inspection station. Each tree will be individually shaken to make sure there are no live insects on the trees. Last year three containers full if Christmas trees were sent back because they were infested by  needle midges. (An  insect that attacks Christmas trees.)

These trees represent a small sampling of the thousands of trees that are shipped to Hawaii each year. Most of the trees come from the Pacific Northwest.

Hopefully the problem will get taken care of and it won’t be a Blue Christmas in Hawaii after all. Read the rest of the story here.