Bring sample of Apis Cerana into uk

[MuswellMetro]

I will shortly be going on holiday Northern Sri lanka in the old tamil heartlands and i know that a Beehive near the bungalow is Apis Cerana

So would it be legal to bring back a sample of dead apis Cerana to the UK so i can look at them under my microscope?

Any ideas of how to preserve the bees for the flight home, i doubt i will have a fridge/freezer to kill them, though about a shot of gin to kill and preserve them...i know it a waste of a drink but the local gin is more like lighter fuel and and pennies

 

[Ruary]

So would it be legal to bring back a sample of dead apis Cerana to the UK so i can look at them under my microscope?

Any ideas of how to preserve the bees for the flight home, i doubt i will have a fridge/freezer to kill them, though about a shot of gin to kill and preserve them...i know it a waste of a drink but the local gin is more like lighter fuel and and pennies

I don't know the legalities of importing dead bees intot he country, but you might be bringing in some hitherto unknown virus, bacteria, fungus, protozoa with the sample.

Biosecurity would be a necessity.

70% alcohol for preservation. (122% proof)

 

[For want of a better word]

Take your microscope and camera with you?
Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints... ( or bubbles if you are a diver!)

 

[MuswellMetro]

Take your microscope and camera with you?
Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints... ( or bubbles if you are a diver!)

camera yes, but my dissecting microscope is a 1970 Russian LOMO that i have difficultly lifting, made out solid solid brass...the excess bagage allowance would bankrupt me

might just take a close up lens for my SLR camera

 

[For want of a better word]

May be worth a call to the entomology dept of the Natural History Museum...
Think I had a contact there Brian Pitkin?

 

[BeeJayBee]

You could check with Defra. They let you bring in 2lb honey for 'personal consumption' but there's no mention of bees.

http://importdetails.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Location=None&Module=IDDSearch

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[oliver90owner]

So would it be legal to bring back a sample of dead apis Cerana to the UK so i can look at them under my microscope?

MM,

May be legal, given all the hoops one may need to jump through to be sure, but certainly not a responsible action, I would have thought, on the part of anyone, let alone a beekeeper.

RAB

 

[wightbees]

Put the bee in the honey

 

[thundercat]

Preserving Bees

The best way to preserve the bees (for later dissection/examination) will probably be to store the samples in an isopropyl alcohol (ipa). Ideally, you would want a ipa and water mix (80-85% ipa), but pure ipa won't make much difference.

 

[Arfermo]

May be worth a call to the entomology dept of the Natural History Museum...
Think I had a contact there Brian Pitkin?

Or DEFRA?

 

[The Cumbrian]

A quick google suggests that it is the Importation of Bees Order 1997 that you might fall foul of.

A foot note to that says.

That Order prohibited the importation of bees or bee pests except under the authority of a general or specific licence issued by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food or the Secretary of State. A specific licence permitted the licensee to import a specified consignment of bees or bee pests from a country named in the general licence issued under that Order.

However no where in a quick scan through of the regs can I find reference to the bees being alive or dead.

I realise MAAF is now DEFRA but I doubt if that changes much.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I realise MAAF is now DEFRA but I doubt if that changes much.

I think the only reason they changed thier name was because of foot and mouth disease...same people though,same rules.

 

[oliver90owner]

I think the only reason they changed thier name was because of foot and mouth disease

Standard ploy. Same in Education. Failed schools change their name (and usually upper policy management), usually change uniform, and away they go again - with a fresh start.

Nothing different than directors of failed companies starting up the 'same business' with another 'front' name.

 

[MuswellMetro]

well i only imported photographs not bees