Beetlemania at Pennsylvania post office

Huge beetles, some 6 inches in diameter, seized in shipment from Taiwan

	A photo released Wednesday by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency shows one of the giant beetles seized from a package after workers at a Mohnton, Pa., postal facility heard the insects making scratching noises.
U.S. Customs and Border Protecti

Slide show

Animal Tracks
Find two super-close zebras, a cow tapped for its natural gas and more eye candy for animal lovers.

more photos

Video: Strange news

Cop's coffee caper
July 18: A Florida police officer was fired after repeatedly demanding free specialty coffee from a local Starbucks. MSNBC's Contessa Brewer reports.

Busting your britches?

Granny beats robbers away

Bush name may adorn sewage plant

No sweat! Obama hitting the gym hard

'Redneck races' at a country jamboree

Will work for food

Related stories

What’s this?

White, Powdery Substance Found At Bellevue Post Office Identified

updated 10:07 p.m. ET May 14, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - Customs agents seized more than two dozen giant beetles — some the size of a child's hand — from an overseas package after postal workers heard the insects making scratching noises.

The large bugs arrived last week from Taiwan at a post office in Mohnton, about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia, in a box whose contents were labeled as toys, gifts and jellies, officials said Wednesday.

But the postmaster suspected the package contained live organisms and notified authorities, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. The package was sent to Philadelphia, where it was X-rayed and then opened.

Story continues below ↓

"The specimens were some of the largest of their kind, and some of the largest I've ever seen, averaging five to six inches in diameter," John Plummer, an agency agriculture specialist, said in a statement Wednesday. "They are highly destructive insect pests that can cause extensive damage to fruit and vegetable crops, trees, shrubs and turf grasses."

In all, authorities found 26 Hercules, rhinoceros and Goliath beetles. It is illegal to ship live beetles into the United States without a permit from the Department of Agriculture.

Seven of the beetles were in containers labeled by gender, which means they could have been intended for breeding, customs agency spokesman Steve Sapp said Wednesday.

The sender and recipient have been identified, Sapp said. An investigation is under way, but no decision has been made whether to file charges, he said.