Legal and Regulatory Control

At first, it may seem ludicrous to even contemplate the use of legal measures as pest control strategies -- it's easy enough to pass laws, but how do you train the insects to obey them? In reality, legal sanctions are aimed, not at the insects themselves, but at a range of human behaviors that are most likely to affect the dynamics of pest populations. Legal control tactics, therefore, include all forms of legislation and regulation that might prevent establishment or reduce spread of an insect population.
The Plant Quarantine Act of 1912 was the first legal action taken in the United States to prevent the introduction of pests from foreign countries. This law, and others that followed it, established a network of inspection stations at major ports of entry and gave the federal government authority to organize border quarantines, to inspect all agricultural products, and to restrict entry of any infested goods. Today, these inspections stations operate under the jurisdiction of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), a branch of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. APHIS operates about 85 inspection facilities, employs 400-500 inspectors, and intercepts over 20,000 potential pest introductions in an average year. It also operates the Plant Quarantine Training Center where inspectors from all over the world are trained to spot problems before they cross international borders. These agents, now representing nearly 40 countries, cooperate in efforts to limit the spread of indigenous pests under an international agreement that requires inspection and certification of nearly all agricultural commodities prior to export