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Hawaii is stepping up efforts to stop the spread of insect pests that
arrive from mainland America in the post. By early next year, all mail sent
to Hawaii from elsewhere, the US will be inspected for pests that might
damage crops or native vegetation in the Hawaiian islands.

The move comes as entomologists from the US and Australia are warning
that greater vigilance is needed throughout the Pacific to stop the spread
of pests. They blame an upsurge in the number of pests on unscreened letters
and parcels and inadequate inspection and spraying of aircraft.

Hawaii is cast as the villain in most cases, but officials there say
the state is often the victim, and has suffered because of introduced alien
pests. According to Hawaii’s department of agriculture, the mail has been
responsible for bringing in such pests as snakes, poisonous spiders, live
insects, snails, diseased plants and animals, and a host of species prohibited
under Hawaii’s agricultural regulations.

Two insect pests – the spiralling whitefly and a plant louse known as
leucaena – arrived from Florida. ‘Amateur horticul-turists go to Florida,
find a species they want, then mail it to themselves,’ says John Beardsley,
of the University of Hawaii. Fruit sent through the mail can also carry
pests.

The new control measures in Hawaii were initiated by senator Daniel
Akaka, who was unhappy that most of the efforts by the US Postal Service
and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) were directed at packages leaving
Hawaii for the mainland, and ignored incoming mail.

Over the past few years, the authorities have begun to employ dogs to
sniff out plant material and fruits bound for the mainland. Fruit from the
islands has been linked to outbreaks of Mediterranean fruit fly in California.
But the inspection was one-sided, says Akaka. ‘The federal authorities are
obsessive about protecting the mainland from pest infestations but have
not shown a corresponding concern for Hawaii’s agriculture or environment,’
he says. This will change under new legislation.

‘The inspection service of the USDA in Hawaii has the authority to inspect
incoming mail, but they don’t do it unless directed to,’ said a spokesman
for Akaka’s office. ‘Frankly, we believe they haven’t been doing much. Also,
the inspection has been limited to agricultural pests.’ Under legislation
passed by Congress, and signed into law by President Bush this month, the
inspection service will also look for pests that could threaten Hawaii’s
tropical forests.

The new measures are controversial. Opening of the mail by government
agencies is a highly sensitive issue, and requires a search warrant signed
by a magistrate.

Doug Waterhouse, former head of entomology at CSIRO, Australia’s main
research organisation, welcomed the tighter US postal inspection. ‘I hope
the French get the message,’ he said. Like the US, the French have territories
in the Pacific.

Waterhouse and Beardsley were behind a resolution passed last July at
the International Congress of Entomology in Peking. The congress urged all
Pacific nations to take ‘urgent action’ to ensure effective inspection of
all incoming packages, including first class mail, and effective insecticide
treatment of all aircraft.

An average of seven pest species of economic significance reached Hawaii
each year between 1984 and 1989. This is double the rate of earlier years.
On the Pacific island of Guam, an average of 2.5 insect pests were introduced
each year in the 1980s. At least a third of these came from North, Central
or South America via Hawaii. Ilse Schreiner from the university of Guam
has reported that one pest arrived in Guam on a US Air Force flight and
two came with commercial shipments of ornamental plants from Hawaii. Guam
has also ‘exported’ pests to other parts of Micronesia, she said.

Most of the new pests introduced to Hawaii in the past decade are common
in mainland America. They include the yellow sugar cane aphid and the lesser
cornstalk borer, both of which have caused huge crop losses.

Waterhouse and Beardsley claim that 90 per cent of the major pests in
the Pacific are exotic introductions. ‘The danger for the small nations
is that their subsistence farming will be threatened,’ says Waterhouse.
‘And they can’t afford pesticides. The bigger countries can cope, although
one or two industries might be badly affected for a time.