I don't think flies or worms or snakes or coyotes know borders!  Don't we all live in the same country?  This is sort of silly, but for those who depend on agriculture for their living, it's serious!

Not sure of the answer because I am a wild child, but I do use serious pesticides!  Nothing organic for us!  We will NOT put at risk our agricultural community and their crops.  We use what they use, and it aint organic! 

Suzi

Here in Massachusetts we are finally going to see and end to tax free sales on Amazon.  I've always thought there seems to be a unique loophole that Ebay provides when you see all the plant material being sold by everyone, garden hobbyists and licensed nurseries alike.  We are under the radar now but I think it is just a matter of time before some bureaucrat takes notice and puts pressure on ebay to end this market opportunity.  I don't know if its a conspiracy theory but I've read some stories about legislation to end small family farm and backyard garden under the guise of food safety.  Or they will allow it but add huge fees on such sales making them unprofitable.

Recentely I helped a family relocating from WA to CA - the movers would not take any of their house plants, they try shipping them to themselves and were not able to. Doing by their books, they donated their 10 y.o. house trees. 

Grasa
It could be because they were moving to CA.
A friend told me that if a family want to relocate from US to Canada then they can bring in (a certain number of) their house plants with them.

I did some reading on the cdfa website which lead me to a 2 pdf files stating that fig imports to California from Florida and PR are red(red or restricted) and can only enter CA with a certificate because of a Caribbean Fruit Fly. All other states are listed as green (green, subject to inspection). So there's that. I ordered fig trees from two Amazon growers Hirt's Garden and Larry's Orchids. Both sellers didn't have that "No shipping to CA" thing, so I just figured that the legal matter was in their hands. Larry's Orchids states that they grow their fig trees from Tissue Cultures, I figured I was in the green.

When I moved from Maryland to California, our moving company informed me that in order to move the houseplants, they had to load them last, and subject them to any inspections when they crossed the California state line.  Plus, I had to fill our CDFA forms for my plants.  And, not just plants - anything that had been stored outside (lawn mowers, pots that had or had had soil in them).  Then, once my items were delivered, I had a certain number of days to contact the CDFA and be willing to subject my plants and items to an inspection.  I did all that by the book, and after speaking with the CDFA agent, they did not feel that what I brought deemed an in-person inspection, and all was cleared for entry into California, as I wasn't bringing anything into the state on the restricted list, plus I had washed out all my pots thoroughly, plus did a bleach rinse.  He thanked me for being so thorough.  I told him I was a Master Gardener and a nurse :-) 

Many years ago my sister discovered a gypsy moth egg mass on some lawn furniture that was moved into California during one of those inspections and it was kind of a big deal.  Of course, one can only guess how many things get brought in and not detected.