Officials say over 16,000 “mystery seed” specimens were sent out to residents nationwide two months ago, but they appear to be mostly harmless. Louisiana Ag Commissioner Mike Strain said we still don’t know exactly who sent the mystery seeds to people in the US, UK, and Caribbean. There is some good news though.
“According to our contacts with USDA so far the good news is there have been very few weeds or species containing diseases. We did find tomato spindle virus and evidence of some insects in some of the seeds,” said Strain.
That being said Strain says you still shouldn’t handle or plant the seeds and should report receiving any mystery seed packages to Ag and Forestry.
Strain said in Louisiana we’ve received over 400 mystery seed specimens. Nationwide we’ve seen them come in from 44 different countries, and 5,000 species of seed have been identified.
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