National Timber Industry at Risk from Beetle in LB

A beetle confiscated at the Long Beach/Los Angeles port complex is considered to be a “very destructive, wood-boring pest,” according to Lee Harty of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

On Friday, officials said the adult beetle, classified under the name strongylaspis corticarius, is the first of its kind to be found in California, and is considered a grave agricultural threat.

The beetle was found living within a shipment of fresh pineapples from Costa Rica.

Customs inspectors discovered the foreign insect in June, but “its analysis and identification by entomologists were not completed until earlier this week,” said Harty, “They pose a serious threat to our national forest and timber industry.”

While this is California’s first documented instance of such an insect, Harty points out that the species has been “intercepted one other time in the United States—in Miami in 1991.”

Last month a different type of beetle that is detrimental to seeds, fruit, cotton, and various plant materials, was discovered by inspectors at Los Angeles International Airport in a shipment of flowers, also from Costa Rica.

Since the fiscal year began, Los Angeles region customs inspectors have conducted more than 8,500 pest interceptions, almost half of which they classified as “actionable” noxious invasive pests, according to Harty.

Chinyere "Cindy" Amobi is part of a team from UC Irvine's Literary Journalism program that is working this summer for Belmont Shore-Naples Patch. 

City News Service contributed to this report.