Strict importation

[Poink88]

Been reading about strict importation of trees and have a few observations. The kanuma/akadama supply being the most recent.

1. Furniture - I bought a furniture form Target a few years back and when I opened the box...a swarm of beetles escaped. I returned it and was replaced but the beetles are already released. I should have reported it but did not.

2. Trees coming in from China and sold by Walmart or local nurseries. I bought a tree from 3017Smith (or something) and was told they are legit importer. The tree came in and it is wonderful & healthy but with it came a few snails, roaches and who knows what else. I kid you not, why and how are these not controlled as strictly?

I am sure there are more and we can only control things but seems like they are more focused on some stuff and not the rest...even slacking on others who already have permit. Just my observation.

 

[rockm]

"I bought a tree from 3017Smith (or something) and was told they are legit importer. The tree came in and it is wonderful & healthy but with it came a few snails, roaches and who knows what else. I kid you not, why and how are these not controlled as strictly?"

If you bought the tree from bonsaismith, it was from Brussels Bonsai. They are a licensed quarrantine facility in the U.S. the snails, etc. are from THEIR nursery in the U.S., as they keep imports for the proscribed two year process.

As for the beetles, yeah, you should have reported them (but they might not be harmful--who knows?) The biggest problem with beetles in bonsai are longhorned beetles. They are not easy to miss. They're large, ugly and leave BIG holes in bonsai.

I was amazed a few years ago when I read an article in Bonsai Europe or whatever it's called now written by a German author who had a beetle in his imported Chinese Elm. He had just gotten the tree and noticed the ugly ass beetle emerging from its trunk --even took pictures. He didn't understand what he was looking at--from the photos its was definitely a longhorn beetle. He wrote poetically of it flying out his window, if I remember.

Jeeez, I mean, what are you gonna do?

One U.S. importer in the Pacific Northwest voluntarily surrended a big expensive shipment of Chinese elms about ten years ago to Customs when longhorn beetles were discovered in one of the trees. The shipment was destroyed...

 

[GrimLore]

Seems like a solid case to collect or buy American Just seems overall safer, Target was an exception to the rule, just refering to the plants.

 

[lordy]

At my job I buy printing paper. There is a program a few years old called FSC certification, (Forestry Stewardship Council) where you can (theoretically) trace paper to a vendor, then to a paper mill, then to a forester. Everyone in the chain pays dearly to learn and exhibit "chain of command" practices which basically support ethical forestry principals. This is hopefully to prevent clearcutting of forests without good management and reforestation. It helps keep the countryside from looking like hell when the treecutters and skidders are done.
My point behind this longwinded explanation is that if the lumber and paper industries go to this trouble, why are quarantined trees still showing insects? Other than some weird botanical pathogen, critters are a huge part of what is supposed to be getting stopped at the border.

 

[bonsaibp]

It really isn't all that easy to find them sometimes. I once dug up a manzanita burl and made a table out of it. When I dug it, it was placed in a box and dosed with malathion then sunk in a pool for a week. I figured that would take care of any unseen creatures. I sanded and sanded put on about 5 coats of varnish and gave it to my mom. 5 years later she noticed little holes in the legs and piles of sawdust-she blamed my nephew for playing with tools. But a couple of days later she saw sawdust falling to the ground and a bug coming out of a fresh drilled hole. Obviously the eggs had sat in there for all that time before hatching. This is why they'll sometimes slice up a tree into sections. The point is though that even obeying the quarantine is no guarantee.

 

[GrimLore]

I am a Technician and my Wife is an Enviornmental Engineer - We disagree and agree sometimes... Excellent example - She wants to introduce some local tree bark to a Terrarium and collects it thanks to a storm. I take it and soak in a copper sulfate soultion for a month. I then let it dry in full sun. After all that I resoak it in a strong chlorine solution and she "cringes". I let it sun dry yet again. BUT fact is it all works out - no "surprise". I found that "technique" by experimentinting with driftwood from Lake Erie and found that after my type of treatment I could use that nasty crap in Salt Water Aquariums...

 

[october]

I remember years ago hearing the stories about those beetles. If I am not mistaken, they are considered serious business and the methods they use to deal with it are pretty drastic. If it is the same beetles I am thinking of. Even if one beetle is found in area. I had heard that they actually cut down many of the trees i n hat area so the beetle does not spread. From what I understand, the powers that be have the right to do this. I believe even in residential settings. Not just one tree either, but a whole bunch of trees in the area.

We cannot even use wood pallets to import/export anymore for this reason. They are all plastic now.

Rob

 

[jk_lewis]

Any one who wants or needs to know abut invasive/exotic species, how they get here, the economic damage they do, as well as the environmental damage would find these pages informative.

http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/

International sources of information:

http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/

 

[GastroGnome]

I'm 95% sure that the Elm shipment In question is the reason for the current APHiS restrictions. Me, I wouldve burned the shipment myself and kept my mouth shut. I believe wholeheartedly that we should be able to police ourselves. Bulk orders of bonsai should be banned, wholeheartedly, I agree with that 100%. But individual buyers buying small lots of 3 or 4 specimen shohin to chuhin size trees from reputable nurseries in Japan? Should be a different class, and one that undergoes the same treatments, barerooting, and inspection....but allowed, with much less stringent quarantine, 4 months as in Europe. Bonsai represent an insanely small amount of import vector for harmful buggies that, in all honesty, are already here, in political parlance, they're no longer invaders, they're colonizers.
Oh, and that bullshite about cut and burn from a well respected Indiana bonsai newsletter writer(Goliath Rogan, or something)...never happened. I know the guy who told him the story and it was bull, he was having a lark because Rogan is sooo anti import(even if it's legal) Japenis Envy.
Fact of the matter is, we all know we're junkies. We are addicts. And many of us are non functioning addicts, willing to do damn near any thing for better bonsai. This prohibition results in nothing more than bonsai bootleggers who smuggle In trees from god knows who in China and Japan and are able to sell them at 20 times what they paid because market value is set by legit importers...draconian regulation produces more beetles and beasties, not less. That's not how I want it to be, or how it might seem, or my opinion...that's the way it IS.