Rating of the likelihood of pest freedom	Very frequently pest free (based on the Median).
Percentile of the distribution	5%	25%	Median	75%	95%
Proportion of pest‐free plants	9,520 out of 10,000 plants	9,733 out of 10,000 plants	9,860 out of 10,000 plants	9,938 out of 10,000 plants	9,976 out of 10,000 plants
Percentile of the distribution	5%	25%	Median	75%	95%
Proportion of infested plants	24 out of 10,000 plants	62 out of 10,000 plants	140 out of 10,000 plants	267 out of 10,000 plants	480 out of 10,000 plants
Summary of the information used for the evaluation	Possibility that the pest could become associated with the commodity This scale insect can be present on host plants in the area where the nursery is located. Due to the biology, Ceroplastes rubens is a good candidate to be transported with the commodity because final stages (overwintering females) can go undetected when they are hidden in the lower parts of twigs and branches. The lack of obvious symptoms at low insect density makes the detection more difficult. Measures taken against the pest and their efficacy Measures taken against the pest are good but not enough to warrant the pest‐free status for the commodity. First, the net does not have a mesh that stops the first instars to go through. Second, the insecticide applications do not completely reach the scales as they are protected by the wax shell. Third, the inspections may not be successful when the insect density is very low and the signs of presence such as honeydew are scarce. Interception records In the EUROPHYT/TRACES‐NT database, there are no records of notification of Pinus parviflora and P. thunbergii plants neither from China nor from other countries due to the presence of Ceroplastes rubens between the years 1995 and May 2021 (EUROPHYT/TRACES‐NT, online). Ceroplastes rubens has been intercepted on bonsai plants of Ilex from China in 2018 (EUROPHYT, online) and on other tropical plants destined to the UK (Malumphy, 2010), the Netherlands (Jansen, 1995), Hungary (Fetykó and Kozár, 2012) and Germany (Schönfeld, 2015). Shortcomings of current measures/procedures Net protection is not fully effective, because crawlers can go through. Pesticides treatments are not targeted to the most sensitive stage (crawlers), so that the efficacy is limited as the other stages are protected by thick wax layer. Main uncertainties – The presence of the pest and its pressure around the nursery.