SUMMARY 
Agricultural pests cost the people of the United 
States $9 billion a year, and most of this expense is 
chargeable to insects, disease organisms, and other 
small destructive agents from other lands that have 
come as stowaways in transport and travel. Trained 
inspectors and quarantine officers guard our ports of 
entry and achieve an impressive record of protecting 
agriculture against new pest invasions, But the task is 
too great for this ‘‘thin line’’ of specialists alone, and 
the United States necessarily relies also on the public 
to help prevent the entry of agricultural pests. Laws 
and regulations spell out public responsibilities. 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making 
special efforts to broaden public understanding as an 
approach to tightening defense against costly pest 
invasions, Travelers’ baggage in particular is known 
to be a hazard, People far more often fail to do their 
part from lack of understanding or from thoughtless - 
ness than from any deliberate intent to foil the law. 
This report compiles information which may be 
useful to those who deal with the public and who have 
need or opportunity to build understanding. It describes 
aims and activities of two divisions in the Agricultural 
Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agricul- 
ture that carry responsibility for protecting the Nation 
from foreign agricultural pests: the Plant Quarantine 
Division and the Animal Inspection and Quarantine 
Division, Some background is included to point up the 
importance of tightening our pest barriers and tocover 
topics about which questions are often asked, 
Information in this report was provided by the Plant Quarantine Division 
and the Animal Inspection and Quarantine Division, Agricultural Research 
Service 
