TEXAS: US Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists in Progreso discovered a rare pest seen only for the third time in the US.
The tominotus hogenhoferi was found last Wednesday in a commercial shipment of cucumbers. While examining the floor of the trailer, a CBP officer found the live insect.
The bug had only been intercepted twice before in the US, in Florida. CBP refused to allow the cucumbers to enter the US and the vegetables were returned to Mexico. The insect is known as a shield or burrowing bug which feeds on plant roots and is distinguished by piercing, sucking mouthparts.
