CAES conducts annual inspections of all registered nurseries to ensure that Connecticut grown plants are free of insect and disease pests. Along with the annual nursery inspections, CAES staff conducts other regulatory duties to reduce the movement of native and nonnative pest species. Houseplants being moved to Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington must be inspected prior to moving. Before plants are sent out of the country, CAES must be contacted so that the plant species can be checked to see if the importing country requires special import permits, treatments or prohibits the plants all together. Finally, CAES is responsible for enforcing hemlock woolly adelgid, Japanese beetle and the smaller Japanese cedar longhorn beetle quarantines.
Numerous states require specific treatments for Japanese beetle.
In order to ship plants into these states, CAES inspectors must issue a Phytosanitary Certificate that states that the requirements have been met. Also, under the Japanese Beetle Harmonization Agreement with Canada, nursery stock must be treated before shipment. CAES inspectors also monitor this procedure. Thus, monitoring is essential for the detection of new pests, native or foreign, in the nursery. Knowledgeable nursery personnel should inspect plant shipments, which arrive from other states or countries, as soon as possible.