ENLISTING PUBLIC COOPERATION IN KEEPING OUT 
FOREIGN ANIMAL AND PLANT PESTS 
All-out help from the public is needed by the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture in a task vital to everybody’s interest: keeping foreign 
agricultural pests from slipping into the United States. 
Many agencies and individuals that contact the public are in positions 
enabling them to explain the agricultural quarantines and their impor- 
tance, The assistance of such persons in channeling information is needed 
on an increasing scale. This report presents information which may be 
useful in building understanding, 
The United States inspection and quarantine system has helped to 
make this country one of the world's safest places in which to grow 
animals and plants, Yet, agricultural pests are costing the people of this 
country $9 billion a year, And most of this expense is chargeable to pests 
that are not native to the United States but have traveled here from other 
lands. 
These roving pests are varied small forms of life. A rogues’ gallery 
of the worst would show a varied crew of insects, mollusks, and worms, 
as well as bacteria, viruses, and fungi that cause diseases, Many are so 
small that their portraits would have to be magnified hundreds of times to 
be visible. If allowed free entry, such pests--added to those we already 
have--would overrun farms, forests, and gardens of this country. Agri- 
cultural products from food to flowers would soon be poor in quality, or 
even scarce, 
Most of these immigrants that nobody wants hide readily in cargo 
shipments, mail, travelers’ baggage, even lunches, 
This country relies on its official pest detectives--trained inspection 
and quarantine officers--to halt every pest invasion that they possibly can 
at seaports, international airports, and border stations, They achieve an 
impressive record of protecting this country's agriculture. But the task 
is too big for these specialists alone. 
The United States necessarily relies also on the public to help prevent 
entry of foreign agricultural pests, and laws and regulations spell out 
public responsibilities. Experience shows that stowaway pests in trav- 
elers’ baggage represent one of the greatest agricultural hazards, Trav- 
elers entering this country are responsible for making known to U.S. 
baggage inspectors any agricultural material in their belongings. As 
travel and transport grow in volume, pest exclusion is a responsibility 
for increasing millions of people. Those concerned include civilians and 
military personnel and great numbers of commuters, particularly those 
crossing the Mexican border, 
Letting stowaway pests escape is expensive. A ‘‘ten million dollar 
foreign orange’’ that someone tossed aside near an airport or waterport 
1In official usage, the word ‘‘pest’? describes all small enemies of plant life, including diseases; 
whereas the words ‘tpests and diseases’’ are used to describe similar foes of animals, emphasizing the major 
importance of the diseases, In this report, for brevity, the word pest is used at times to include diseases 
of animals as well as of plants, 
