Border Patrol Agents Find Bits Of One Of World's Most Destructive Insects In Shipment From India

PORT HURON (WWJ) - Border Patrol Agents at the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron discovered remnants of an insect considered one of the world's most destructive pests in a shipment from India.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the shipment of split and washed "moong dal" (mung) beans was identified as a high risk of pest infection on November 29.

When agriculture specialists inspected the cargo, they found cast skins of suspected khapra beetle, and the shipment was refused entry into the country. On Dec. 1, U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologists positively identified the cast skins as being from khapra beetles.

The khapra beetle, with origins in South Asia, is one of the world's most destructive pests of grains, dry beans, and other stored products. It is considered one of the 100 worst invasive species in the world. Any shipment containing remnants or actual specimens dead or alive of the khapra beetle is denied entry into the United States.

Officials say this is the fourth khapra beetle interception from a commercial shipment in Port Huron. All of the commercial shipment interceptions have been from commodities originating in India