Holidaymakers are warned not to bring back foreign plants

GARDENERS have been told by ministers to “stop bringing back plants from holiday in their sponge bags” to stop inadvertently introducing invasive species into the UK.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble, an environment minister, said he wanted to ensure a “biosecurity mindset” among holidaymakers.

The peer said he wanted Britain to become more “biosecure”, copying Australia and New Zealand, which have tough laws to stop foreign species being introduced that might post a risk their indigenous flora and fauna.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials are becoming increasingly concerned about waterborne threats such as the Dikerogammarus villosus, also known as the killer shrimp; Didemnum vexillum, the carpet sea squirt, and Dreissena bugensis, the quagga mussel.

Lord Gardiner said people “should not be bringing back plants in their spongebags”, adding: “Tourism is essential but we need to raise awareness of biosecurity.

“If you look at what Australia and New Zealand do, we need to think through in the medium and longer term; what are the things we could do to make our country more biosecure and extremely welcome to visitors?”

The department recently launched a “check, clean, dry” campaign warning that “you may unknowingly be helping to spread invasive species from one water body to another in equipment, shoes and clothing”.

A department spokesman said: “One of the main risks that we are concerned about is the potential for freshwater and marine invasive non-native species to be accidentally brought into the UK by people who take part in water based activities abroad – for example anglers, canoeists and boaters.”

Killer shrimp, originally from eastern Europe, live in fresh water and can reduce the quality of fisheries and impact on recreational water use.

Freshwater quagga mussels, also from eastern Europe, breed extremely fast and grow in dense colonies, clogging water treatment pipes.

Carpet sea squirt, from the northwest Pacific, was first discovered in Britain in 2008. Despite its size – each organism grows to just 1mm long – it clogs up fishing equipment, covers boat hulls and smothers reefs.