PERMANENT Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) has called on everyone going home during this Christmas festive to be careful on the agriculture products they take with them.

PS Jimi Saelea makes the call in the hope that the invasive Rhinoceros beetle is prevented from spreading across country.

He said that the pest is currently contained and has not yet spread to other parts of the nation, stressing the importance of having this status maintained.

Mr Saelea explains that having the beetle found only on Guadalcanal, it would make counter measures against the pest easier and with higher chances of being successful.

But, he says, this may prove more difficult if the pest were to spread to other islands.

Mr Saelea said this is a very important message to everyone and people need to be very careful on that not only during their voyage home this Christmas but during any movement take between the provinces at anytime.