I've known about the wood needing to be finished for a long time but...a few years back while I wasn't paying attention my hungover (still a little drunk) husband mumbles "I don't know, I guess" to the wood question, damn it, lol! We had to go to the right, room full of armed officers! They were super nice, asked me to dig through my own luggage for the carvings, then made jokes about keeping the shark we had purchased for my son! That was it and we were on our way! Like Tawnee said, they just don't want us bringing home non native bugs!