Valentine's Day is just around the corner and that means beautiful flowers, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is inspecting all imported flowers to keep them pest free. They check every stem, leaf and flower petal for diseases at the cargo processing facilities at Miami International Airport.
"We're inspecting tropical flowers during the Valentine's rush. We get a lot of flowers around this time. We're looking for pests, we're looking for insects, we're looking for diseases," explained Alida Mota, Agriculture Specialist.
While the flowers are filled with love, they could also be filled with creepy critters.
"Those 1,400 pests that could damage our agriculture are the ones that they're looking out for every single day," said Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
To prevent invasive species and diseases from coming into the country, agricultural specialists inspect boxes and boxes of flowers and zoom in to remove bugs.
"There's a lot that goes behind it to get it those flowers to your table," said Michael Diblasi, Chief Agriculture Specialist with CBP.
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This is a $15 billion industry in the United States. During last year's Valentine's Day season, CBP processed approximately 976 million cut flower stems; 91.5 percent of those flowers came through MIA.
"We inspect it with love. We take the time and the care to inspect it so that when they get to someone's table or to a vase, that they're actually in good shape," Diblasi explained.
