Just before Valentine’s Day in Bethesda, stores will be crawling with spouses, significant others, and other romantic hopefuls as they race to find last-minute gifts that will help them declare their love. The most popular of these gifts, as we know, is the Valentine’s bouquet.

But did you know that this time of year is one of the busiest – not just for floral companies, but for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection? That’s because, of the hundreds of millions of flowers imported from over 30 countries in honor of Valentine’s Day, many of them carry insects, pests, and diseases that could pose a risk not only to your romantic evening, but to agriculture and floral business in the United States.

Border Protection Inspectors take a random sample of each variety of flowers – which include roses, tulips, daisies, and others, and toss the ones that pose a risk. Hitchhiking pests commonly intercepted in this process include mites, aphids, miner flies, and moths.

So before you dismiss flower-giving as a meaningless gesture this Valentine’s Day, think about what some poor employee at CBP went through to get that flower into that vase on your kitchen table. And free of invasive little bugs, at that.

If pests of any kind are upsetting your romantic groove, don’t forget to give Green Pest Services a call.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Information taken from the official website of the Department of Homeland Security. For more information, click here.