Wooden packaging drove most US woodwasp interceptions, study finds

When a shipment arrives at a port, inspectors are usually focused on what's inside the containers. But sometimes, the biggest biosecurity risk isn't the cargo at all, it's the wooden pallet or crate carrying it.A new study published in Biological Invasions suggests that this has been the case for woodwasps, a group of wood-boring insects capable of spreading through international trade. After analysing decades of border inspection records from the United States, Canada and New Zealand, researchers found that wooden packaging materials were by far the most common pathway through which these insects crossed borders.