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The Illinois Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) program is a joint effort between several state and federal agencies, including the Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois Department of Agriculture, and USDA-APHIS-PPQ.

This program focuses on the early detection and surveillance of harmful or economically significant exotic plant pests, diseases, and weeds that have eluded first-line of defense inspections or have been identified as threats to U.S. agriculture and/or the environment.

The primary objective of the CAPS program is to safeguard our nation’s food and environmental security from invasive pests that threaten our production and ecological systems.

Pest Tracker is the public face of invasive pest detection surveys that take place nationwide. For more information about the national CAPS program, please visit the CAPS Resource and Collaboration website.