The Holiday Season is one of the busiest shipping times of the year, with gifts riding and flying all over the country, including into and out of San Diego County.
If you’re one of the many who will be sending shipments or bringing home gifts from travels, just remember, do not accidentally include dangerous hitchhikers — do not pack a pest!
It can happen. The gifts you send or receive could be carrying unseen pests or plant diseases that could potentially damage our own local environment and the County’s $1.67 billion agricultural industry.
For example, that homemade wreath you’re bringing home from your visit to grandma could be carrying spongy moth eggs. Those yummy oranges you picked off the tree in your backyard could be carrying “citrus greening” — huanglongbing — a devastating plant disease that kills citrus plants of all kinds. Even the beautiful fruit basket you and the kids made from scratch to send to a friend could be hiding mealybugs.
And those things can be harmful locally. The state Department of Food and Agriculture has declared ongoing citrus greening quarantine areas in Fallbrook, Oceanside, Rancho Bernardo and Valley Center.
Every year San Diego County’s Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures inspectors — human and detector dogs — work hard to stop the spread of invasive pests into the county. From exotic fruit flies to the emerald ash borer, glassy-winged sharpshooter and South American palm weevil.
And you can help, especially in shipping season. Just follow these simple guidelines:
Don’t Pack a Pest
If you’re traveling — whether it’s out of state or out of the country — leave what you find behind. Don’t bring home a keepsake clipping from your grandmother’s holiday wreath, or those bulbs you found in Florida. And don’t bring home or avocado leaves from Mexico, or any citrus branches, leaves or stems from anywhere.
Don’t transport any fresh, raw, uncooked and untreated foodstuff. That goes for seeds, beans, nuts, rice, dried fruit, decorative greenery, untreated wood items, animal products or soil from almost any foreign country.
If you are traveling and think you may have accidentally packed some plant or animal item away? Declare them when an agricultural inspector asks you if you have anything in your luggage.
For more information about harmful insects, plant diseases, Agriculture, Weights and Measures and everybody’s role in protecting our local environment and agriculture, visit the department’s Insect and Plant Disease Information webpage.
Source: County of San Diego Communications Office