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Blaine, Wash.— Recently at the Peace Arch port of entry in Blaine, Wash., a Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialist intercepted a species of scales insect never seen in the United States that could have caused serious damage to American agriculture.

The armored scales insects were found under the leaf stem of a mangosteen fruit seized from a passenger arriving from Canada. A scale is an insect that lives under a hard shell on the surface of a plant or fruit and uses its straw-like mouthparts to suck the juices from its host.

Foreign scales and other exotic pests pose a serious risk to American agricultural resources because they have no natural predators in the U.S. They can damage fruit and potentially kill entire fruit trees.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Systematic Entomology Laboratory determined the scales as a probable new species of Diclavaspis, adding to the significance of this discovery. As a new species, its impact to American agriculture, had it gone undetected, could be devastating.

The CBP agriculture specialist and the CBP officer at U.S. ports of entry and international mail facilities target, detect, intercept and thereby prevent the entry of these potential threats before they have a chance to do harm. On a typical day in fiscal 2006, CBP seized more that 4,000 prohibited meat, plant material or animal products, including 147 agricultural pests at ports of entry.

For more information on the role of CBP agricultural inspections, please visit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Web site at Protecting the Food Supply: Agriculture Inspections. ( Agriculture )

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control, and protection of our Nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.