PPQ officers refer infested shipments for fumigation. In many cases the infested packing material must be separated from the imported products and destroyed. These actions include imposing quarantines and conducting intensified visual inspections around confirmed sites to delimit infestations. In the areas where movement of suspect products is regulated, infested trees are removed and destroyed. Some shipments packed in solid wood packing materials can be fumigated to kill hitchhiking pests like the Asian longhorned beetle.
Some importers fumigate shipments on their own to guarantee smooth entry into the United States.
Fumigating is an option for killing only hitchhiking pests. Once Asian longhorned beetles are established in the environment, there is no effective treatment other than destroying infested trees. Although there is a treatment for infested cargo, currently there is no effective treatment to destroy these pests once they infest an area without destroying a great number of trees. Infested trees must be removed, chipped, and then burned to destroy all life stages of any beetles remaining inside. Researchers are also exploring better detection and trapping tools.