New Pest Response Guidelines - aphis - US Department of Agriculture

Pathways
Officers with USDA-APHIS and the Department of Homeland Security
reported only one interception of Dendrolimus sp. at US ports of entry from
1984-2006 (USDA-AQAS, 2007). This interception was from a shipment of 2
branches of Pinus sp. in baggage from Japan coming into Hawaii on March
19th, 1984.
Dendrolimus spp. may have arrived in the US slightly more frequently than
suggested by this record. Specimens identified as Lasiocampidae are
actionable, and no further identification would be needed to make a regulatory
decision. Specimens identified as Lasiocampidae have been intercepted at least
20 times at US ports of entry between 1985 and 2004 (incomplete records
complicate the accuracy of this count). Annually, only about 0.8 (±0.24
standard error of the mean) interception has been reported nationally (USDA-
AQAS, 2007). The majority of interceptions (35%) were considered ‘at large’
or loosely associated with unspecified plants or wood and were reported from
Miami, FL (20%), Laredo, TX (10%), and JFK International airport, NY
(10%). These ports are the first points of entry for infested material coming
into the US and do not necessarily represent the final destination of infested
material (Davis et al., 2005).
Human-Assisted Spread
Human assisted pathways are probably the most likely way of introduction
from Europe or Asia to the United States. In 1984, a larva of Dendrolimus sp.
was intercepted in luggage from a passenger flying from Japan to Hawaii
(USDA-AQAS, 2007). Between 1985 and 2004 twenty interceptions of insects
from the Lasiocampidae family were made at ports of entry in the United
States with 35% of these interceptions associated with plant material and/or
wood (Selness, 2006; USDA-AQAS, 2007).
Potential human-assisted pathways include but are not limited to:
Plant material. Probably the most likely pathway. Eggs, larva and pupa can
be easily transported in infested plant material and are likely to survive
transport from Europe or Asia to the United States (See Pest Information
on page 2-1). Infested plant material include:
Live plants especially from the genus Pinus infested with eggs, larva,
pupa or adult. It is also important to consider overwintering larva present
in the soil of host plants and overwintering larva in the soil of non-host
plants when these are grown in nurseries close to a forested area where
pine-tree lappet outbreaks are known to occur.
Plant parts including cut branches, foliage (Christmas trees) and logs with
bark where eggs and pupal cocoons can be found.
8-4 Dendrolimus Pine Moths 12/2012-01