Suspicious seed packages delivered in Clear Lake added to investigation

(Above) Clear Lake resident Kendra Walker received these seeds, shipped from China.  They have now been forwarded to the USDA for investigation.

by Marianne Gasaway

It’s fun to get packages in the mail, but unsolicited packages have begun showing up at local addresses, raising concerns about their contents.

According to the USDA, people across the country  have received suspicious, unsolicited packages of seed that appear to be coming from China.  USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection, other federal agencies, and State departments of agriculture to investigate the situation.

Kendra Walker, from Clear Lake, said she placed two orders for pampas grass through Amazon this spring.  One small packet of seeds arrived in June, which she thought may be too late for planting and so she set it aside.  Late last month, a second packet arrived.

“I might not have thought that much about it, but the seeds in the second pack were very tiny.  They didn’t look anything like the first pack,” she said. Upon closer examination, she saw that the actual package they were shipped in came from the “north side of the west gate of South China Avenue, Longgang District, Shenzhen.”

Adding to the mystery of the package was the listing of its contents: “grass stud earring.”

In the weeks between her first shipment of seeds and the second, Walker said she had become aware, through social media, that people throughout the United States had received seeds.  She contacted the Iowa Department of Agriculture in Des Moines to report her experience.

The Department of Agriculture took her name

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and address and said it will be sending her a pre-paid envelope for her to forward the seeds and packaging to them.

“They told me they had received more than 300 telephone calls in the last 48 hours from people who had received seeds,” said Walker.  “They are collecting them and sending them on to the USDA for analysis.

The USDA has issued the following statement about the seeds:

“At this time, we don’t have any evidence indicating this is something other than a “brushing scam” where people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false customer reviews to boost sales. USDA is currently collecting seed packages from recipients and will test their contents and determine if they contain anything that could be of concern to U.S. agriculture or the environment.  USDA is committed to preventing the unlawful entry of prohibited seeds and protecting U.S. agriculture from invasive pests and noxious weeds.”

All 50 states have since issued warnings about the unsolicited packages.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has identified 14 varieties of mysterious seeds purportedly sent from China to U.S. citizens who didn’t order them. The known varieties include rosemary, sage, mint and hibiscus. The common herbs hardly seem a threat, but APHIS maintains its warning—reiterated by all 50 states—that recipients of unsolicited seed shipments should not plant them.

“Our main concern is the potential for these seeds to introduce damaging pests or diseases that could harm U.S. agriculture,” APHIS said in a statement posted on the USDA’s website. Osama El-Lissy, an official with APHIS, said the 14 seeds represent “just a subset of the samples we have collected so far.”

Walker said Iowa Department of Agriculture officials have told her it is likely she will receive even more packages.

“That’s what they are hearing from people who have contacted them.  They don’t know what they are, or why people are receiving them.  They are turning it all over to the USDA to determine who’s behind it or what’s behind it.”

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