Steve Switzer is like a kid with toy. He closes his lips over a straw-sized tube, sucks in, and poof! A tiny insect on the table vanishes from sight, then reappears inside a small plastic vial.
“That’s how you catch a bug, hands-free,” he says with obvious delight, like he had just performed a magic trick. “You don’t squish it, you don’t damage it.”
Switzer is an agricultural specialist with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Charleston under the Department of Homeland Security. It’s his job, along with a dozen other people in his office, to hunt down the bad bugs of the world and stop them from entering the United States.
Flying and crawling creatures are but one category of pests that Border Protection is on the lookout for, along with plant and animal diseases, weed seeds and snails. They check out shipping containers, inspect military aircraft, airport baggage, cruise ships and other pathways for the unwanted travelers.
The objectives are both economical and environmental: The yearly impact of invasive species and weeds in the U.S., including control and prevention, is $134 billion. Both can destroy foodstuffs,Buy low price Aion Kinah, crops, forests and animal habitats.
Most of the bad foreign bugs never become household names, but a few are infamous: the Japanese beetle, which arrived in 1916, or the imported fire ant, in 1919.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs.
In a large, nondescript warehouse off Clements Ferry Road and a quiet office suite in North Charleston, two federal agencies join forces to collect and identify bugs or larvae that may have burrowed into wood or a bag of rice or hitchhiked on a piece of Italian tile.
Border Protection specialists are like arresting officers, but all of them have science backgrounds. They seek and capture insects in the field, both dead and alive. The suspect bugs (most having been dropped in a vial of alcohol) then go to the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, which is under the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
There, entomologist John Weaver puts the bugs under a microscope to determine exactly what they are and whether they pose a risk or not.
“Our big thing right now is the Khapra beetle,” which is coming mainly from Mideast and African countries, Switzer said.
Switzer said the Khapra beetle is the only pest in the world that the government would take action on even if only the cast, or skin, was found.
Otherwise, a live specimen is required.
The tiny brown beetle, which hides in rice, lentils and Indian and Pakistani foods and spices, can feed and multiply so rapidly that the grain is soon ruined.
Because facilitating trade is a big part of the USDA’s mission, Weaver said, the focus on the beetle is well-deserved.
“The United States is one of the few countries in the world that does not have Khapra beetle. That’s a real plus for exportation of our agricultural products.”
Only a certain percentage — the government won’t say exactly — of shipping containers get opened up and personally inspected. But the process isn’t random. Agriculture specialists screen documents, looking for red flags
before a ship ever sails from a port.
Those include countries or regions that are insect hot spots and importers or shippers with a history of Customs violations.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. Intelligence information can come into play. “We’re very risk-based,” Switzer said.
A container tagged for inspection is taken from the port to the Clements Ferry warehouse. At the loading dock, Customs specialists start sleuthing for insects, both outside and inside the container. Once the door is opened, any flying insect would be an immediate target.
But specialists also carefully examine the cargo. They will open boxes or bags of rice or corn to extract samples. They may vacuum dirt from the floor for a closer inspection as well. They look for telltale signs of bug feeding like sawdust.
The old needle-in-a-haystack analogy applies here, with some bugs no bigger than a flea or a gnat,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. like the Khapra beetle. “You have to have good eyesight,” Switzer said. “We don’t get a gun but we get a very nice flashlight.”
Officers use giant butterfly nets,Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale rtls projects. tweezers, pocket knives, pry bars and chisels. The most useful, said Switzer, is the aforementioned “bug sucker,” a $7 device officially called an “aspirator.”
Wood packing materials such as crates, pallets and bracing are notorious hideouts for wood-boring insects. “It’s a big pathway for the introduction of invasive species,” Switzer said, such as the Asian long-horned beetle, considered one of the most destructive non-native insects in the United States.
“That’s how you catch a bug, hands-free,” he says with obvious delight, like he had just performed a magic trick. “You don’t squish it, you don’t damage it.”
Switzer is an agricultural specialist with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Charleston under the Department of Homeland Security. It’s his job, along with a dozen other people in his office, to hunt down the bad bugs of the world and stop them from entering the United States.
Flying and crawling creatures are but one category of pests that Border Protection is on the lookout for, along with plant and animal diseases, weed seeds and snails. They check out shipping containers, inspect military aircraft, airport baggage, cruise ships and other pathways for the unwanted travelers.
The objectives are both economical and environmental: The yearly impact of invasive species and weeds in the U.S., including control and prevention, is $134 billion. Both can destroy foodstuffs,Buy low price Aion Kinah, crops, forests and animal habitats.
Most of the bad foreign bugs never become household names, but a few are infamous: the Japanese beetle, which arrived in 1916, or the imported fire ant, in 1919.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs.
In a large, nondescript warehouse off Clements Ferry Road and a quiet office suite in North Charleston, two federal agencies join forces to collect and identify bugs or larvae that may have burrowed into wood or a bag of rice or hitchhiked on a piece of Italian tile.
Border Protection specialists are like arresting officers, but all of them have science backgrounds. They seek and capture insects in the field, both dead and alive. The suspect bugs (most having been dropped in a vial of alcohol) then go to the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, which is under the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
There, entomologist John Weaver puts the bugs under a microscope to determine exactly what they are and whether they pose a risk or not.
“Our big thing right now is the Khapra beetle,” which is coming mainly from Mideast and African countries, Switzer said.
Switzer said the Khapra beetle is the only pest in the world that the government would take action on even if only the cast, or skin, was found.
Otherwise, a live specimen is required.
The tiny brown beetle, which hides in rice, lentils and Indian and Pakistani foods and spices, can feed and multiply so rapidly that the grain is soon ruined.
Because facilitating trade is a big part of the USDA’s mission, Weaver said, the focus on the beetle is well-deserved.
“The United States is one of the few countries in the world that does not have Khapra beetle. That’s a real plus for exportation of our agricultural products.”
Only a certain percentage — the government won’t say exactly — of shipping containers get opened up and personally inspected. But the process isn’t random. Agriculture specialists screen documents, looking for red flags
before a ship ever sails from a port.
Those include countries or regions that are insect hot spots and importers or shippers with a history of Customs violations.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. Intelligence information can come into play. “We’re very risk-based,” Switzer said.
A container tagged for inspection is taken from the port to the Clements Ferry warehouse. At the loading dock, Customs specialists start sleuthing for insects, both outside and inside the container. Once the door is opened, any flying insect would be an immediate target.
But specialists also carefully examine the cargo. They will open boxes or bags of rice or corn to extract samples. They may vacuum dirt from the floor for a closer inspection as well. They look for telltale signs of bug feeding like sawdust.
The old needle-in-a-haystack analogy applies here, with some bugs no bigger than a flea or a gnat,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. like the Khapra beetle. “You have to have good eyesight,” Switzer said. “We don’t get a gun but we get a very nice flashlight.”
Officers use giant butterfly nets,Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale rtls projects. tweezers, pocket knives, pry bars and chisels. The most useful, said Switzer, is the aforementioned “bug sucker,” a $7 device officially called an “aspirator.”
Wood packing materials such as crates, pallets and bracing are notorious hideouts for wood-boring insects. “It’s a big pathway for the introduction of invasive species,” Switzer said, such as the Asian long-horned beetle, considered one of the most destructive non-native insects in the United States.
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