[Aim] Internationally navigating small ships can carry a variety of plant pests and lead to biological invasion. Investigation of pests in small international ships arriving to port can provide evidence for the need of quarantine inspection of these ships.[Method] The general conditions of small international ships in Taizhou port including the sanitary condition of their food cabins and the intercepted pest species and their sources were recorded and analyzed for their invasion potential.[Result] In total, 3193 entry ship-times were checked from January 2015 to December 2016. During inspections, 686 pest species were intercepted and 87.5% of them were insects. The highest rate of pest interception was between June and August. More than half (55.9%) of the pests were intercepted in dry food. 36.1% of ships with poor food cabin hygiene carried pests.[Conclusion] The situation of pests carried by small international ships was serious and the occurrence of plant pests exhibited seasonality. The sanitary condition of the food compartment was closely related to the risk to carry pests.