Agriculture fruit package materials

For example, the lack of good alternatives pushed the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1998 to recommend the use of methyl bromide to treat wood packaging materials from China. A voracious, nonnative insect pest had been found in such packaging materials in 14 states around the United States. The Asian beetle had no known U.S. predators and could cost the United States more than 41 billion in lost forest product, commercial fruit, maple syrup, nursery, and tourist industries. This beetle was an extremely serious insect, and methyl bromide was the only known effective insecticide. Heat treatment was also suggested, but it proved to be more difficult and expensive (Morse 1998). Therefore, methyl bromide as an insecticide was receiving a reprieve. 

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