Small hive beetle in mainland Europe.

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Bee & Queen Imports will never be banned as long as there is and appetite from beekeepers to save a few £s. When it boils down to it when people want something they crawl the internet searching for the cheapest possible price.
For every 1 person that says they would not buy imported bees or Queens there are 50 that would based on the price alone.
 
SWMBO dropping one of her melons is always a terrible sight!

When SWMBO drops one at the top of the cwm, it can take out an apiary like skittles. I saw it wnce; a terrible site.

Things could go tits up and apiaries get taken out like skittles by beetles or draconian" horse has bolted but we're doing something" officials quite soon anyway, not really a joking matter, I bet there's quite a few Italian beekeepers in despair as we speak.
 
Bee & Queen Imports will never be banned as long as there is and appetite from beekeepers to save a few £s. When it boils down to it when people want something they crawl the internet searching for the cheapest possible price.
For every 1 person that says they would not buy imported bees or Queens there are 50 that would based on the price alone.

Legislation is a firm deterrent, people argue that a ban would be unenforceable because queens can be sent through the post, but its would only take one person to get caught and be prosecuted and fined for 99.9% of beekeepers to not risk it. Pressure to legislate is what's needed imho
 
Beekeepers with poly hives may even have to pay to have their colonies destroyed and hives incinerated.

chemical means can destroy the beetles, larva and the eggs in plastic. The issue is the ground under the hives were the larva go to pupate.

But since alot of the bee establishment has yet recognise the existence of hives other than wood, who knows what officialdom can cook up as eradication.
 
Legislation is a firm deterrent, people argue that a ban would be unenforceable because queens can be sent through the post, but its would only take one person to get caught and be prosecuted and fined for 99.9% of beekeepers to not risk it. Pressure to legislate is what's needed imho

Money is a much bigger motivator that's why prisons are overflowing. Legislation is nothing more than another slight niggle to anyone that wants to go down that path. I would say 70% of all Queen imports into the UK never even make it on to a register. Total number of packages imported from the entire EU in 2013 was 2309 I know for a fact you can double that.
 
Money is a much bigger motivator that's why prisons are overflowing. Legislation is nothing more than another slight niggle to anyone that wants to go down that path. I would say 70% of all Queen imports into the UK never even make it on to a register. Total number of packages imported from the entire EU in 2013 was 2309 I know for a fact you can double that.

I'd agree that many imports go under the radar but how many beekeepers would continue with this practice if Mr Jones down the road had just been fined a month's wages for the same thing?
 
I'd agree that many imports go under the radar but how many beekeepers would continue with this practice if Mr Jones down the road had just been fined a month's wages for the same thing?

Well Mr Brown would say cool i can sell twice as many now that Jones is out of business i better double my order
 
Well Mr Brown would say cool i can sell twice as many now that Jones is out of business i better double my order

I think there are more profitable avenues than beekeeping for persons with such attitudes.
 
Well Mr Brown would say cool i can sell twice as many now that Jones is out of business i better double my order


A *very* risky strategy with so many watching and desperate to get some of the shysters out of the bee trade.

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COLOSS seem to think that SHB will not be eradicated from Italy.

The Italian beekeepers seem to think the same, not anti import, but i think this country needs to ban all imports from such places, until we actually have SHB ourselves at least.
 
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COLOSS seem to think that SHB will not be eradicated from Italy.
The COLOSS release says "48 apiaries of 13 bordering municipalities, all of them concentrated in an area of 10 km radius." The latest maps dated 31/10/2014 on izsvenezie.it show at least 51 apiaries. Some of the latest detected extending the range to the East inland and the beetle appears to have lept at least a dozen apiaries previously marked as clear. That might have to be revised to "not detected yet".

COLOSS are probably right. If the will wasn't there for somehing like a 10 km radius no-honey-bees zone to be created when first detected, it's not likely to be there now when the eqivalent would be about 50 km by 40 km.

The spread so far seems to be up to 20km in only a part season, is that 50-100 per year? Ten years to the Northern Italian border, another ten to the channel coast. All assuming spread is only though natural beetle flight limits.
 
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The COLOSS release says "48 apiaries of 13 bordering municipalities, all of them concentrated in an area of 10 km radius." The latest maps dated 31/10/2014 on izsvenezie.it show at least 51 apiaries. Some of the latest detected extending the range to the East inland and the beetle appears to have lept at least a dozen apiaries previously marked as clear. That might have to be revised to "not detected yet".

COLOSS are probably right. If the will wasn't there for somehing like a 10 km radius no-honey-bees zone to be created when first detected, it's not likely to be there now when the eqivalent would be about 50 km by 40 km.

The spread so far seems to be up to 20km in only a part season, is that 50-100 per year? Ten years to the Northern Italian border, another ten to the channel coast. All assuming spread is only though natural beetle flight limits.

looks like number 52 was previously a "not yet "
 
Could do worse


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