Spider mites have stymied a plan to have the Bermuda Red Cross benefit from the sale of Valentine's Day roses.

The initiative was shut down by Government after the Department of Environment found shipments of roses containing eggs and adult and juvenile mites on a "disturbingly high" number of roses in mid-December.

Customs is now working to ensure that importers of cut flowers do not inadvertently introduce the pests to Bermuda, as they could cause severe damage to local crops.

The fundraiser was organised by businessman John Casling, who brings in flowers for the Phoenix stores and various grocers. "Mr. Casling contacted us asking if they could do a fundraising effort," said Red Cross director Ann Spencer-Arscott. "They would handle all the processing and delivery.

"Then we got the call to say, unfortunately, with these issues around cut flowers, they deemed them not environmentally friendly to the Island. It was just going to be tough for him to bring them in.

"It was for our general fundraising. We have different activities throughout the year and it would have gone into our fundraising account to offset costs from day to day.

"We were going to get ten percent of the sales and we were certainly getting orders."

Mrs. Spencer-Arscott said she was very disappointed the initiative had to be cancelled.

"It was going well. It was something different. People were reaching out to us. These are challenging times. It was going to be something fun."