IS YOUR HOUSE HIDING A HORROR STORY?

ANIMAL PLANET LAUNCHES A NEW SEASON OF "INFESTED!" ON DECEMBER 30, AT 9 PM ET/PT

-- If You Think Your Four Walls Protect You From the Creepy-Crawly World Outside, Think Again...

Roaches! Rats! And bats! Oh my! Is your skin crawling? It will when the new season of INFESTED! premieres Friday, December 30, at 9 PM ET/PT with seven hour-long episodes and two "best-of" episodes. INFESTED! unearths the real-life horror stories of ordinary people plagued by extraordinary infestations inside their homes.

We're not talking about the occasional bug slipping through a crack in your wall - it's a full-on war for the victims whose nightmares are relived this season. Every one of these victims has suffered either physical harm or psychological trauma. Some of them may never feel safe and sound again. This season, get up close and personal with nature's nastiest squatters, including spiders, opossums, bedbugs, scorpions, bats and rats - all of which can spill out from the tiniest orifices and create a living terror.

In the premiere episode of INFESTED!, a young family moves into a new home in Kentucky only to discover a protected species of bat that cannot be disturbed. Then, a Pennsylvania household combats a deluge of cockroaches and learns that these bugs crawled their way from the neighbor's house. Across the country in California, a single mom battles the growing number of filthy rodents raging a riot through her home. Future episodes become deadly when a Tennessee father fights for his life after he's bitten by brown recluse spiders. Each spine-tingling story is enhanced by macro-lens photography and stunning CGI recreations, which reveal how these critters strip humans of the four walls that protect them from the outside world. INFESTED! is more than enough to make everyone shiver and check twice under the bed.

INFESTED! is a production of Darlow Smithson Productions for Animal Planet. Ben Bowie and Nick Metcalfe are executive producers for Darlow Smithson, and Lisa Lucas is the executive producer for Animal Planet.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 97 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.