BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE 67 
FOREIGN PLANT QUARANTINE ACTIVITIES 
Injurious Pests Caught Before Entry 
During the year, 151,000 lots of prohibited or restricted plants and 
plant products were intercepted, an increase of more than 6 percent 
over 1950. Interceptions numbered 95,000 from passengers' baggage, 
3,300 from cargo, 3,500 in mail, 17,100 in ships' quarters, and 32,100 in 
snips' stores. In this huge quantity of intercepted material there were 
10,850 insect infestations and 6,710 plant-disease infections. 
Among the injurious insects intercepted were the olive, oriental, 
Mexican, West Indian, Mediterranean, and three other species of 
fruit flies, the citrus blackfly, and nine species of whiteflies, the mango 
weevil, pink bollworm, and several lepidopterous pests of beans and 
grapes. 
Fungus diseases intercepted included : Black spot of citrus, Austra- 
lian citrus scab, sweet orange scab; Cercospora diseases of banana, 
orchid, cotton, onion, rhododendron, persimmon, pomegranate, mango, 
oleander, laurel, and palm; rusts of rhododendron, juniper, quince, 
boxwood, chrysanthemum, bird-of-paradise, and cherry. Virus dis- 
eases were intercepted on tomato, crossandra, and camellia. Bac- 
terial diseases were found on endive, hyacinth, olive, oleander, and 
citrus. Nematodes intercepted included many specimens of the golden 
nematode in soil with plant parts, as well as the oat nematode of the 
same genus. 
Carriers Inspected 
Maritime traffic was almost 6 percent heavier than during the pre- 
vious year, owing in part to large-scale passenger travel and a grow- 
ing volume of foreign commerce. Of the 47,600 incoming vessels 
44,350 were given plant quarantine inspection. Injurious insect pests 
and plant diseases intercepted included such harmful species as the 
golden nematode, giant African snail, several species of fruit flies, 
potato weevils, avocado weevils, and citrus canker. It was again 
necessary to treat or otherwise safeguard cargoes of military equip- 
ment returned from the Pacific because of infestation with the giant 
African snail. This was accomplished through the cooperation of 
the transportation agencies and importers. The golden nematode, 
presented a particularly difficult problem in that it was frequently 
found with minute quantities of soil on root crops carried in ships' 
stores and associated with other miscellaneous materials upon which 
it does not feed and where its presence would not ordinarily be sus- 
pected. 
Nearly 70,000 planes were inspected at ports of entry, an increase 
of 21 percent over the previous year. Almost one-third of these were 
carrying contraband plant material originating in many foreign coun- 
tries and destined to points throughout the United States. Air traffic 
from the Orient, both through Honolulu and by way of Alaska, was 
exceptionally heavy. 
The inspection and certification of fruits and vegetables for move- 
ment from Hawaii to the mainland again increased sharply as a 
result of approval of new treatments lethal to the oriental fruit fly 
