Critters found in store-bought vegetables

I agree with others - these types of observations depict organisms that are wild by iNat’s definition (assuming that the observer didn’t intentionally but the specific item at the store because they wanted to bring the hitchhiker home and check it out!). Wild/Not Wild on iNat doesn’t mean “is a threat” or “is a problem”, and whether these observations “pollute” range maps is an opinion that will vary from user to user.

Some other relevant threads:

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/marking-hitchhikers-traveling-species-which-is-the-best-way/39346

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/evidence-possibly-transported-unaturally-far-from-its-source/46062

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/have-you-ever-found-hitchhiking-animals-in-produce-houseplants-timber-etc/46395

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/location-for-observations-of-organisms-unintentionally-shipped-in-other-items-ie-amazon-purchases/61101

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iNaturalist’s current definition of wild vs. captive:

Checking captive / cultivated means that the observation is of an organism that exists in the time and place it was observed because humans intended it to be then and there. Likewise, wild / naturalized organisms exist in particular times and places because of other reasons (e.g. members of native or established non-native populations or released/escaped pets, hitchhikers, or vagrants).

(Emphasis in original.)

In the past, the definition wasn’t clear on whether organisms moved accidentally by humans were wild or captive, but after one of the many, many discussions about this on the forum, it was changed to the definition above which clearly includes accidental hitchhikers as “wild.”

They also added the Not Established annotation for them, but they haven’t expanded it past reptiles and amphibians yet.

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The ABA’s rules are intuitive in theory, but in practice are interpreted wildly differently by different people and committees over time. For example, while there is no explicit rule banning ship-assisted vagrants, in practice they are rarely if ever accepted.

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