Found This on Your Christmas Tree? Toss It Out

Bright Side

Winter hides more surprises than it seems. A festive Christmas tree can bring unexpected guests into your home, while something as ordinary as snow turns out to be far stranger, colder, and more extreme than most people realize. From tiny creatures waiting to hatch indoors to the hidden science behind snow and ice, these stories reveal how nature quietly blurs the line between cozy and dangerous.  Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00Mmm, a weird white spot on a banana is a sure sign you probably want to throw them away,

00:06as these are the nests of spiders.

00:09I'm talking about the Brazilian wandering spider, as it has no GPS.

00:14And this guy is dangerous, also known as the world's most venomous spider.

00:19One bite, and your nervous system is instantly blocked.

00:22As a nasty bonus, you get nausea and blurred vision.

00:25Don't worry, they're most likely to be found in South America.

00:28But since they like to hide, they can sneak into the banana box and travel wherever the bananas travel.

00:35They like to travel in their sack, and there is evidence of a mama spider traveling together with her baby spiders.

00:42Oh, goody.

00:47Ever eaten canned food?

00:49Gences are, you've hoovered up some maggots, too.

00:52Those critters can be found in all types of food.

00:54Canned tomatoes? Sure thing.

00:56Canned mushrooms? Absolutely.

00:59Maggots are crazy about those.

01:01They love it so much that 20 maggots are good to go for 3.5 ounces of drained mushrooms.

01:08Sorry, pal. There's nothing we can do.

01:09Just accept it.

01:11Some creepy things in your food may actually be approved by the FDA.

01:16As weird as it may sound, the FDA is okay with 30 or more insect parts per chocolate bar.

01:24Want to know more?

01:25Okay, how about rodent hair in your peanut butter?

01:28Mmm, yummy.

01:29Despite the fact that peanut butter is one of the best controlled by FDA products out there,

01:35they don't see anything bad in a couple of rodent hairs per jar.

01:38Now, let's check your intuition.

01:41Question 1.

01:42How much mold is acceptable in apple butter, according to the FDA?

01:46Not that much, actually.

01:4812% mold is acceptable.

01:51Question 2.

01:52How much mold is okay for cherry jam?

01:54Things are getting stinkier, as 30% mold is okay for cherry jam.

01:59The last one, what about black currant jam?

02:03Ready?

02:0375% moldy black currant jam is FDA approved.

02:08I don't think I'm going to eat peanut butter with black currant jam ever again.

02:13Broccoli is both good for health and risky at the same time.

02:17It's not that you shouldn't touch broccoli, but it's a rather friendly reminder to check your veggies.

02:23What if there might be a dangerous insect lurking inside your broccoli?

02:27Let's say, the black widow spider.

02:30Their bite is not as bad as the Brazilian wandering spider's bite, but it's still not good.

02:35It's a true story.

02:37A guy from Ohio did find such a spider in broccoli.

02:40Luckily, this story has a happy ending.

02:42The person who found it called the local animal sanctuary,

02:45and the Ohio Another Chance Sanctuary adopted the spider and gave it a really cute name.

02:51Broccoli.

02:52Hey, wait a minute.

02:54We're adopting spiders now?

02:55Ho, ho, ho.

02:58Christmas is soon, and you opt for a live Christmas tree.

03:02Before dragging that tree right to your place, you better inspect it thoroughly.

03:07See that walnut-sized pinecone-shaped object hanging on your tree?

03:11Bad news.

03:12This is someone's dormitory.

03:14It's an egg sack holding hundreds of little mantises waiting to hatch in your home and celebrate the holidays together.

03:21So, unless you want to share your bed with them, make sure all the surprises are under the Christmas tree, not on it.

03:30Right, you don't want to risk and opt for the fake Christmas tree.

03:33Good choice.

03:34Thing is, fake trees are three times less likely to catch fire than live ones.

03:39But it doesn't mean it's totally safe.

03:42You have to be careful either way.

03:44Use appropriate lighting and never place the fake tree too close to the heat source.

03:50Flame-resistant models are the best.

03:52All right, nearsighted people, beware.

03:56If you ever see something that looks either like an Oreo cookie or an ancient coin with a quaint design, you better put on your glasses before touching it.

04:04You know, this might be a terrifying spider.

04:07What, again?

04:08Yeah.

04:09I'm talking about the Chinese hourglass spider.

04:12And I honestly have no idea why they call it the hourglass spider, and not the cookie spider.

04:19These guys live in Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Guatemala.

04:22And it seems like it doesn't really care that much about cold, since it can even chill in some parts of the United States and Canada.

04:30These spiders are notorious for setting up traps.

04:33They build burrows, and once they detect motion, bam, they pounce.

04:37Also, those burrows help them keep unwanted visitors, such as wasps, at bay.

04:43Good news?

04:44We humans are way too large for them to drag us into their dungeons.

04:48And, despite many viral posts, they're not poisonous to us.

04:53Phew!

04:57What time is it?

04:58Ah, it's time to debunk another myth.

05:01Now, some time ago, there was a viral TikTok video with strawberries soaked in salt water.

05:07The video looked pretty gross, because of worm-like bugs crawling from the strawberry.

05:12But this one is sort of a myth that all the strawberries are swarming with larvae.

05:17First off, they all get checked and soaked before shipping.

05:21Moreover, there are fruit flies, which are quite different.

05:24Thing is, if the berries wait on the counter to be bought for too long,

05:28they start attracting fruit flies, which lay teeny tiny eggs, which then turn into larvae, which then turn into new fruit flies.

05:36The key point here is that these fruit flies are everywhere.

05:40Supermarkets, smaller stores, and even in your kitchen.

05:43And, yeah, you're pretty much likely to eat them each time you munch on pretty much any berries.

05:49You say gross, I say natural protein.

05:52Eh, just kidding.

05:53Don't worry, plant larvae aren't dangerous for people.

05:56Also, you don't need to soak your berries in salt water.

05:59A thorough rinse will do.

06:02Now, it's best to avoid some fruits if they're under-ripe.

06:05Lychee is a good example here.

06:07Despite their innocent appearance, they can be pretty dangerous.

06:11If you eat them before they're ripe, you're likely to consume some toxins, too.

06:16It's not as bad as you can imagine, but this toxin can significantly lower your blood sugar.

06:21For people with certain conditions, it may lead to unwanted consequences, including fever and even worse.

06:28So, nothing extraordinary here.

06:30Just make sure your lychees are ripe.

06:34Now, you might think that black sooty spots on your apple are a true sign the fruit isn't edible.

06:40But it's not quite true.

06:42First off, those sooty spots are nothing but a cosmetic issue, even though it's a fungus.

06:48But don't worry, it's not dangerous or something.

06:51Option 1, scrub those spots off and munch on your apple.

06:54Option 2, peel the apple and munch on it.

06:57Option 3, where you throw the apple away, doesn't exist.

07:01Now, beware if the salmon you're about to buy has caviar.

07:06It might be a sign this fish is not going to be as yummy as you want.

07:10Salmon from the Pacific Ocean tend to lay eggs in freshwater.

07:14So, they have to migrate when they do that.

07:16But once the salmon is in freshwater, all its systems kind of stop working and the fish stops eating.

07:23Such salmon is still edible, but the quality is way poorer than it could be.

07:27And what if you see a white capsule on your kale, which is supposedly a cocoon?

07:34Hey, no need to throw your dinner away.

07:36You can simply remove this aspiring butterfly or fly, give that kale a fine rinse, and enjoy your salad.

07:44Oh, almost forgot?

07:45Be careful with prepackaged salads.

07:48Even though the manufacturers claim they're safe to eat without washing,

07:52there is evidence of people getting health conditions because of unwashed prepackaged salads.

07:57Those salads landed them with hefty medicine bills to get rid of the consequences.

08:02Imagine you suddenly notice a fly in your drink.

08:07Is it doing the backstroke?

08:08Will you finish the glass or pour another one?

08:11Well, it depends on the gender of the fly.

08:14If you've got a female fly in your drink, a couple of minutes later, the taste will get funky.

08:20If a male fly wants to take a bath in your glass, it won't ruin the drink.

08:24Thing is, the female flies have certain pheromones that are in charge of that funky smell.

08:30Even if you've fished the fly out instantly, the drink can still lose its original taste,

08:35as even one nanogram of pheromone is enough.

08:39But, since you probably won't be able to tell the fly's gender, you probably want to pour a new glass.

08:45Yeah, a fly in your stomach won't do anything bad to you, but it's sort of gross.

08:51Throwing a snowball to your friends, putting a carrot on the snow person of yours, skating, and many more.

08:57It's the snowy winter spirit.

08:58Here's some facts about snow.

09:02Surprisingly, snow can come in different colors.

09:05Let's start with yellow snow.

09:07If it starts snowing when flowering trees are already in bloom, pollen is in the air too.

09:13Besides giving you allergies, it lands on snow-covered surfaces.

09:17In this scenario, snow blends with pollen, which results in this suspiciously yellow shade.

09:23The snow clouds can carry sand particles too.

09:26Yellowish-tinged snow was seen in South Korea in March 2006.

09:31The snow got the sand from the deserts of northern China.

09:34Pollen is oftentimes harmless.

09:37But sand-caused yellow snow isn't that innocent.

09:40It's related to air pollution.

09:42When NASA's Aura satellite detected this phenomenon, weather officials warned the public about the potential risks of this golden snow.

09:51Sometimes the color of the snow looks closer to brown, not even yellow.

09:55Certain trees, like oaks, carry a lot of tannins in the bark.

09:59These are organic compounds that protect the tree from harmful bacteria and funguses.

10:05These tannins can fall to the ground near the tree.

10:08For that to happen, it first needs to rain, and then the rain should turn into snow.

10:13The moisture makes the tannins run down.

10:17Have you ever just laid on the fresh snow and opened your mouth to let those tiny flakes in?

10:22How safe is it to eat those flakes, though?

10:25In most cases, it isn't.

10:27But here's a pro tip for snow eaters.

10:29The safest way to consume snow is by choosing a clean and white layer.

10:34Get some from the freshly fallen fluffiest part.

10:37And now, forget about it.

10:38You never know what random show in the street may contain.

10:42Blue-tinted snow is the next one on the list.

10:46A cloudy day will create darker shadows.

10:48Snow absorbs all color wavelengths.

10:50Well, almost all color wavelengths.

10:53It cannot completely absorb blue.

10:55The bottom line is that bluish snow forms due to the weather conditions.

11:00I mean, the snowflakes are actually translucent, since they're made up of ice crystals.

11:05These crystals reflect light.

11:07That's why, in regular cases, snow appears white to our eyes.

11:12Gray and black snow also exist.

11:15Here, I'm not talking about melted snow mixed with dirt near the roads.

11:19The one I'm referring to is created with the dust coming from the volcano.

11:24But it can be created with less exotic soot, ash, or motor vehicle exhaust.

11:29This type of snow is dirty.

11:31It might have a dusty or oily scent.

11:34If its color comes from petrochemicals, then it's probably toxic.

11:39The next one is watermelon snow.

11:41The name comes from the red and green color of the snow.

11:46Unlike other color versions, this one has a sweet and fruity scent.

11:50Different kinds of algae and bacteria produce watermelon snow.

11:54You would be very lucky to see it because it's seen during summer in alpine and coastal polar regions.

12:01The greenness comes from chlorophyll, and the redness comes from astaxanthin.

12:06This is sort of a pigment.

12:07Fun fact, some animals, such as flamingos, crabs, and salmon, also get their color from that pigment.

12:15This phenomenon is super important ecologically.

12:18When the snow melts, it mixes into the waters and becomes a food source for organisms.

12:24Snow can come in different colors, but also different shapes too.

12:29An example would be snow rollers.

12:31To me, it looks as if someone is dragging an ice cream scoop through the ground.

12:35They are rare phenomenon because they need certain conditions to form.

12:40There should be wind, but it shouldn't be too strong.

12:43Typically, 30 miles per hour should do it.

12:46Yet, it depends on the snow too.

12:48It should be snowing, and how powerful the snow falls is another issue.

12:53Snow rollers occur in open prairies or hills with no obstacles like boulders or trees.

12:59It's a combo of two separate layers of snow.

13:03The first layer is the pre-existing sheet that crashed on the ground.

13:07The second one is a fresh layer of fallen snow.

13:10Imagine snow running down from the top of an ice rink, which doesn't hold on to what's under.

13:16Then, the wind carries some snow that is sticky enough to hold on to the things on its way.

13:21As the roller moves, it continues growing, if it's windy and there's an opportunity for rolling down a hill.

13:29Now, I want to move on to other cool facts about snow.

13:33For instance, it's silence.

13:35Do you know how freshly fallen snow absorbs sound?

13:39Especially if you live in a busy city, you realize it's the quieter ambience.

13:44It literally absorbs sound waves.

13:46Think of it as a commercial sound absorbing product.

13:49Things change when it melts and refreezes.

13:52Then, the ice reflects sound waves.

13:55As a result, sound travels further.

13:58Plus, it gets clearer.

14:01It's not just us enjoying the snow.

14:03Apparently, some monkey species love it as much as we do.

14:08Japanese macaques or snow monkeys also make snowballs and play with them.

14:12Young macaques especially get attracted to snow.

14:15They steal one another's snowballs, then fight to get them back.

14:19Snow, blizzard, what else?

14:22I can count some words related to snow.

14:24But the Inuit, for example, has dozens of words for snow.

14:28And Scots has 421 terms related to the snow.

14:32For instance, scalf is a large snowflake.

14:35And unbrac means the beginning of a thaw.

14:38From one point of view, there's the cold and the risk of hypothermia.

14:44From the other point of view, animal burrows or human igloos.

14:48We associate snow with cold, but it warms you up.

14:51Since snow consists of above 90% trapped air, it's a perfect insulator.

14:56We talked about snow itself, but what about snowflakes?

15:02The shape of a snowflake is bound to the air temperature around it.

15:07Researchers examined snowflakes and found out that long, thin, needle-like ice crystals form at around 28 degrees Fahrenheit.

15:15They also investigated other ice crystal samples taken from different temperatures.

15:21The flakes appear to be flat and plate-like in lower temperatures, such as 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

15:27The snowflake can also appear with six arms or a dendritic structure as ice crystals.

15:33And that again depends on the changes in the temperature surrounding each snowflake.

15:38Maybe you heard the saying that no two snowflakes are identical.

15:42A catalog of snowflakes supports this theory.

15:45One chemistry educator detected more than 30 different types of snowflakes.

15:50They are classified as column, plain, rimmed, irregular, and so on.

15:56The reason for all this variety is the path each snowflake makes to fall to the Earth.

16:01Each one of them faces a tiny bit of different atmospheric conditions on its way to the ground.

16:06All of them have six sides, that's for sure.

16:10But in 1988, a scientist found two identical snowflakes.

16:15Turns out, they can be identical.

16:19Snow can be seen in deserts too.

16:22I know it sounds super contradictory.

16:24We're accustomed to thinking about smoking hot sand, cactuses, and nothingness from a desert at first glance.

16:31In Death Valley or the Sahara Desert, snow is occasionally seen.

16:35In fact, in January 2022, some parts of the Sahara Desert got covered with a white blanket.

16:42It's not unlikely to happen all the time, but it's not impossible at all.

16:46You see, on some nights, the temperatures in the desert get low.

16:50Snow needs two things to form, cold temperatures and moist air.

16:54Sahara put a tick on both of these conditions.

16:58Bonus fact!

16:58How long is the tallest snow figure?

17:01In 2008, Bethel town residents in the U.S. united their forces with the people of surrounding towns to break a world record.

17:10The snow person was 120 feet tall.

17:13It took them more than one month to finish creating the figure.

17:17The Statue of Liberty was only a few inches taller than this figure.

17:21When we see a strong snowstorm, we call it a blizzard.

17:26That's not always so.

17:28You see, a snowstorm should meet some qualifications to be classified as a blizzard.

17:33For instance, the wind should be at least 35 miles per hour.

17:38Plus, the snow must decrease the visibility to a certain mile for three hours at the least.

17:45Otherwise, the snowfall can be named a snow squall or a snow burst.

17:51That's it for today.

17:56So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

18:01Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.

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