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Link to original content: https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/plh4l/travelling-and-plants
Travelling and plants | EFSA
A yellow suitcase and a straw hat on top of a rock overlooking a mountainous landscape with clouds and a village below.

Travelling and plants

Passport? Check! Tickets? Check! Pests… Pardon?

Travelling outside the EU? As you prep and pack to come back home, some things need to stay exactly where you found them: plants, seeds, flowers, fruit, and vegetables.

Why?

The bottom line is that the tiniest seed or seemingly innocent fruit can carry pests or diseases – posing serious risks to plant health, our agricultural and natural environments.

The good news is that by packing responsibly, checking pockets and compartments, and ensuring our bags are free from plants or plant products, we won’t bring back unwanted guests – like Pesty!

By plants or plant products, we mean living plants, flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds, cuttings, bulbs, and any other parts of plants that can potentially carry pests or diseases.

Suitcase

If you love me, let me go…

As you explore new destinations, soak up the natural beauty around you but curb the urge to take plants home. 
When you travel outside the EU – or to our overseas territories[1] in the Atlantic, Antarctic, Arctic, Caribbean, Indian, and Pacific regions – please bring back memories and photos, not plants!

Whichever mode of transport you’re using, leave pests behind so our native plants and ecosystems can survive and thrive.

Photographing

One seed can cause a million problems

In the early 2000s, the Pine Processionary moth made an unexpected trip – probably from North Africa – to Paris, hitching a ride on imported plants. Its larvae wreak havoc on local pine forests and are poisonous to humans and animals.[2]

Smuggling nature's souvenirs can backfire bigtime. We never know if we’re giving pests a free ride. By leaving plants where they belong, we can protect our ecosystems from hidden invaders.

Check you’re not checking in pests

  • Not bring plants, seeds, flowers, fruit, and vegetables when travelling to the EU.
  • Be aware of hidden risks: tiny seeds + sneaky pests = a major problem.
  • Checkout local regulations at your destination.
  • If in doubt, leave it out.
  • Spread the word, not pests.

Resources

[1] The EU’s overseas territories include: Greenland, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, New Caledonia, Saint Barthélemy, St. Pierre et Miquelon, and the Wallis et Futuna Islands.

[2] Roques, Alain & Rousselet, Jérôme & Avci, Mustafa & Avtzis, Dimitrios & Basso, Andrea & Battisti, Andrea & Mohamed Lahbib, Ben Jamaa & Bensidi, Atia & Berardi, Laura & Wahiba, Berretima & Branco, Manuela & Chakali, Gahdab & Çota, Ejup & Mirza, Dautbasic & Delb, Horst & El Alaoui El Fels, My Ahmed & Mercht, Saïd & El Mokhefi, Mhamed & Forster, Beat & Robinet, Christelle. (2014). Climate Warming and Past and Present Distribution of the Processionary Moths (Thaumetopoea spp.) in Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa. 10.1007/978-94-017-9340-7_3.