Some worrying news!

SC Kevin

Small Hive Beetle confirmed in Italy! :eek:

On September 11 2014, the Italian National Reference Centre for beekeeping confirmed the first detection of the presence of Small hive beetle (SHB) in South West Italy, in the port city of Gioia Tauro. The samples were taken from a bait trap (similar to the Sentinel Apiaries in the UK) belonging to the University of Gioia Tauro.

Since its discovery, urgent measures are underway to measure the extent of the outbreak, complete tracings (sales and movements of bees from the area) and eradicate and control its spread in line with EU legislation and safeguards. Measures include that in all apiaries where the beetle is found colonies are destroyed and all soil surrounding the land is ploughed in and treated with a soil drench.

Since 2011, there has been a substantial level of imports of package bees and queens from Italy into the UK. The NBU is arranging for further inspection of colonies belonging to these beekeepers.

Mike Brown and Gay Marris are attending the EURL Honey Bee meeting in France next week where the Small hive beetle will be discussed extensively. For more information about this exotic pest and the things beekeepers should do are illustrated in the NBU advisory leaflet ‘The Small hive beetle’. Please see the NBU website for more details: https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/

DK man

No doubt some of those who love importing bees will bring this new threat into the country and will wreak havoc on the colonies just like varroa and demand more expense on beakers and higher losses

SC Kevin

Im a member of another forum and they are already starting with the usual crap..

"it comes in on fruit so should we ban all fruit"
and
"its gonna come here anyway"

I mean, do they not realise that they are taking a very big risk importing bees in to this country and if SHB does come in, it will affect others?

or do they just not give a dam!? :mad:

Oldtree

Have to ask... have we not learned form the ash dieback debaucle???

Native Honey Bee

.............or do they just not give a dam!?

Unfortunately, that just about sums up the attitude of those who import bees. In many cases these individuals come from Germany and the Netherlands and so have no long term interest in this country or it's well being. They are here to make a quick buck and when they have done irreparable damage here, they can leave as they have no ties.

coley

And just last weekend there was a feature on BBC called Great Animal Moves, showing people moving animals around the world etc. One of the reports showed an English guy travelling over to Italy and importing millions of boxes of bees to boost his colonies and those of others he had sold to.
Easy carriage for those little blighters!

-Coley.

I'll see if I can find a link to the prog - don't know when the feature was filmed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04hcrh2

from the episode - don't think he got quite those numbers in the end.

Beekeeper Murray McGregor is importing eight million bees from Italy to provide pollinators for British fruit farmers. With bee numbers plummeting in the UK, Murray's cargo is especially precious.

giraffegoat

I have a question...Will Irish beekeepers interests be represented at the meeting in France and at EU level in respect of this threat?

conor t

Is it mainly the supers that the shb affects? And does anyone know if the cool damp weather here would effect their survival/spread?
On the points about Murray McGregor, he is a top operator and isnt some cowboy importing bees to make a quick buck

giraffegoat

conor t wrote: »

Is it mainly the supers that the shb affects? And does anyone know if the cool damp weather here would effect their survival/spread?
On the points about Murray McGregor, he is a top operator and isnt some cowboy importing bees to make a quick buck

There is a hugh expense in fitting out a honey house and super store to try and exclude pests. Unlike the wax moth species this one appears to be far more robust and persistant.

Its true Murray has been around for a long while now but he's a business man with bills to pay. To my mind he realised long ago that Britain was awash with imported bees for many years, so he took a business decision. This is unlike Ireland currently, where a lengthy importation ban from 1980 up to the early noughties for the most part gave the Native Blacks a chance. Even with the few (who feel their right of choice as an individual outweighs the greater good) that import have had little effect overall so far. But as we all know it only takes one to endanger an entire population!

Native Honey Bee

conor t wrote: »

And does anyone know if the cool damp weather here would effect their survival/spread?

To the best of my knowledge, the mild Irish climate would suit the SHB perfectly and allow it to proliferate. Unlike say Canada, which has very cold winters and frozen ground, we have nothing to check it's spread and control it's numbers.

giraffegoat

Native Honey Bee wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge, the mild Irish climate would suit the SHB perfectly and allow it to proliferate. Unlike say Canada, which has very cold winters and frozen ground, we have nothing to check it's spread and control it's numbers.

I do not think we should jump to the conclusion that a sub-saharan insect will be perfectly at home here. But I do agree on some caution all the same.

bpmurray

A few EU countries are also very strict about imports - Slovenia has a total ban on all imports so that their bees are all Carnolian (apparently very quiet and good at reacting to the availability of food sources). This was an absolute requirement that they had on their EU membership, and it would be relatively easy for an island country like Ireland to forbid imports, particularly from places where the beetle is found.