Farm Compliance

Dallas, Texas - United States Customs and Border Protection agricultural specialists at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport intercepted a species of insect never before recorded in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pest ID database.

Agricultural specialists discovered the pest in a shipment of mixed herbs December 22, and sent them to the USDA for identification. The tests results indicated that the pest was Trichapion colon Sharp, of the Apionidae family. The Apion insect is considered a pest because it feeds on the leafy foliage of plants.

"Since this is the first recorded interception of this species, we don’t know how harmful it is to our agriculture," said Chief Morris Bigham, Customs and Border Protection supervisory agriculture specialist. “Any first-time interceptions we find result in our most restrictive actions.”

This action included quarantine of the shipment of mixed herbs until the pest identification was made. After USDA identified the pest and determined it was the first of its type reported, the agriculture commodity where the pest was discovered was destroyed using steam sterilization.

“The attention to detail that our CBP agriculture specialists around the country pay to the hundreds of inspections and examinations they perform on a daily basis demonstrates the pride they take in the work they do to protect American agriculture from invasive pests,” said Jeffrey O. Baldwin, Sr., Houston director of Field Operations.