Agriculture specialists at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Monday said they found one rare and one usual pest in a shipment of fresh celery that arrived from Mexico.
The discovery occurred on Jan. 16 at the Otay Mesa Cargo Facility in San Diego, California. According to a CBP release, one of the specialists referred the driver and cargo load for an intensive inspection following an initial examination.
In the inspection area, specialists found one live Chrysomelidae (leaf beetle) and one live Lepidoptera (moth) within the celery. The traveler and shipment were then returned directly to Mexico.
The pest was sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Identifiers for further identification….