USDA officials aim for a pest-free Valentine’s Day

Roses are red. Violets are blue. Make sure those exotic flowers aren't hiding a critter or two. Sending flowers is a Valentine's Day tradition, but, according to the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), shipments of freshly cut imported flowers may contain pests that threaten American agriculture. "Not only can roses infested with bugs or carnations afflicted with disease send the wrong message on Valentine's Day, they are also a serious threat to the safety of American agriculture," said Richard L. Dunkle, deputy administrator of APHIS' plant protection and quarantine program. Plant protection and quarantine officers at APHIS inspect millions of imported, freshly cut flowers every year at airports across the country including those in Miami, Los Angeles, Houston and New York. Valentine's Day makes February one of the officers' busiest months. "On an average day, 30,000 boxes of flowers pass through Miami's international airport," Dunkle said. "These numbers can double during prime holidays like Valentine's Day." Flower shipments containing pests or diseases are treated, destroyed or sent back to their country of origin. Culprits can include beetles, moths and butterflies. Hallie Pickhardt, a spokeswoman for APHIS, said that in the last decade, importing flowers has become big business, and the agency has doubled its efforts to catch critters before they reach American soil. APHIS' new pilot program in Miami--the largest port of entry for imported flowers--focuses on inspecting high-risk varieties of flowers, including asters from Ecuador and limonium from Colombia. According to Pickhardt, 20 percent of imported asters and 10 percent of limonium carry pests. Pickhardt said APHIS is not neglecting shipments of flowers, such as roses and carnations from Latin America, that are less likely to be pest-ridden. But it makes sense to concentrate on plants that bugs like more. "It's quality over quantity [with regard to inspection]," she said. The three-month pilot program started Jan. 4. Pickhardt said the program is going well, but that APHIS is waiting until the pilot phase is over to compile statistics. Pickhardt said it is difficult to trace invasive bugs back to their points of origin once they get into the United States, so she did not know of any incidents stemming from bugs in imported flowers. However, in the 1960s, three giant African snails carried over in a little boy's pocket were turned loose in a garden in Florida. Those three snails spawned 18,000 and ended up costing the government over a million dollars to eradicate them over a decade. "That's why we have inspectors inspecting cut flowers and officers stationed at international ports," she said. Happy Valentine's Day.