One insect hasn’t been seen in 40 years
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ag specialists stationed at Washington Dulles International Airport recently intercepted two pests.
Each pest, which the specialists discovered in a shipment of flowers from South Africa destined to a Virginia flower ship, is significant for their own reasons.
The first pest the inspectors found is Caprhiobia sp. (Lygaeidae).
This insect is native to Africa and “has a voracious appetite and causes extensive damage to vegetation,” CBP says.
This discovery is important because it marks a first-in-port entry, meaning no previous reports of this bug in that region exist.
The Caprhiobia sp. (Lygaeidae) belongs to the family of seed bugs.
These insects can feed on multiple crops including potatoes, cucumber, sorghum, wheat and more.
The other insect the CBP inspectors found hasn’t been seen in four decades.
The Oxycarenus maculatus, also known as the Protea seed bug (pictured above), was last saw in that part of the U.S. in November 1984.
Like the other bug, this one can cause serious damage to crops if allowed to thrive.
For example, these insects can reduce the number of seeds per seed head by up to 70 percent.
“Seed bugs are a crop pest and poses a serious threat to our nation’s crop industries, such as corn, grains, wheat, cotton, fruit, tree nuts and vegetables,” the CBP said.
The CBP works all year to protect U.S. ag and consumers from pests and other potential hazards.
In April, for example, the CBP precented 500 pounds of mangoes, 10 pounds of pork products and other goods from entering the U.S. from Mexico.
In September, Freddie, a member of the Beagle Brigade, sniffed out two pounds of snake meat arriving from Equatorial Guinea.
And in October, ag inspectors stopped almost 750 pounds of unauthorized bologna from coming into the country from Mexico.
During a typical day in 2023, CBP ag specialists seized 3,287 prohibited plant, meat, and soil products, and intercepted 231 insect pests at ports of entry.