Receive and publish the service of our correspondent Pugliese, Francesco Colafemmina, because as he says in the article beekeepers have few information about small hive. And then, if there will be a financial loss we will fight because the people involved, beekeepers, receive the right support from the scientific institutions and the right monetary financing to meet the emergency. Beekeeping, the whole can not be left alone
Speaking of small hive
The small hive beetle is now the third confirmed outbreak tell us the national beekeeping associations. There Apitalia, then, through which we seek to provide information to beekeepers. And the institutional sources?
These days, unfortunately, there is no time to lose, but apparently the situation on the ground is not so rosy. And 'this fact, the opinion of the owner of an important company in the province of Vibo bees, a few tens of kilometers from the port of Gioia Tauro, Nicola Ferraro, breeder queens.
Ferraro does not hide his anxiety mixed with resignation to what is happening at this time. "There are those who already is quick to accuse us of breeders queens, arguing that the larvae would come through the candy, but we do not buy queens from countries where there is the small hive." And indeed it is difficult to think that the small hive may have developed without any damage within farms rearing queens, often with mininuclei not always to the best of their energies and therefore succulent prey of the terrible beetle.
"I believe - adds Ferraro - that we do not tell the story as it is. I would like to understand the responsibilities of Professor Palmeri. I would like to understand how it was possible to develop the small hive inside nuclei left the harbor for months without controls. "
Indeed Palmeri had told Apitalia that those three nuclei "devastated" were not "bait" and had not been seen for at least an entire month (August). Given that the timing of development of the larvae of small hive is also driven by the temperature the possibility that a female beetle escaped from a container near the port may have been attracted by the smell of those 3 cores weak and that there is no contrast is preserved by bees and humans is quite high (a full cycle of small hive varies from 4 to 6 weeks). How high is the possibility that some beetles escaped the destruction of the 3 nuclei, in the absence of new nuclei "bait", have spread in the area looking for new nests of bees.
"Of course, the problem breaks out now that the chickens have already escaped from their cages." According to Ferraro, in fact, "there are many nomadisti Sicilian and Emilian that frequent the area of the plain of Gioia Tauro" and "if one of these was by chance visited by some specimens of the beetle riprodottosi successfully in the three initial nuclei now as it is finds out? '.
The breeder then the finger tip of Calabria on the controls, "I asked my local health authorities if by chance they will come to check my company. I do not know how to recognize or find this insect in case he managed to get here. They said that for now they do not know, maybe, well, we'll see ... ". Not to mention the issue of compensation: "I have already called from Sweden, one of my big client, to ask what is happening. It 'obvious that if we go on like this we will not sell more queens at least in the next year. And no one expects compensation. What will they do? We leave you to die? "
The same opinion Michele Taverniti, another well-known farmer near the area where the \ 'small hive has been spotted for the first time: "You provide compensation for all other agricultural sectors, but beekeeping is the spare tire industry ... has no weight. " We ask him what he thinks of the question, and his answer is that "we are in chaos. Each year, these parts trucks loaded with hives. Downloading in one night and then restart after a few weeks. This year I have downloaded at least 300 hives a few tens of meters from my apiary. I reported the matter to the ASL and Forestry. Both they told me to be short staffed and can not come to carry out checks on nomadista abusive. " It 'clear that today, with the emergence small hive implement these nomadisti you can not find them more. But there is hope that the small hive if it is preserved only in the three nuclei close to the harbor, many nomadisti they're gone long before the beetle had time to get in their hives.
For Taverniti then the problem is also that of information: "I'm going every night glued to the pc to look on the internet about this bug. Is it possible that the information should find me alone? No one has even told us how to recognize it, to track him down, this beetle? What are the pitfalls? How do you bring? What effect do they have? '. Ferraro also takes issue with the associations: "I called the president of the regional FAI but after the announcement of the news of the discovery we had no other information. The clock is ticking and we would not find ourselves in trouble in the next season. "
What is needed, in short, better information and coordination. "We beekeepers Calabria - adds Taverniti - we are the most damaged. We live in our work, we live our farms, our honey. And we can not move from here. Anyone who thinks that in reality \ 's small hive has already been developed in the last season does not know what he says. Considering how little we know ourselves that we are professionals, we have already had businesses destroyed by this insect. And who says that in the Calabria beekeepers have used the spear coumaphos unfounded accusations. "
We have also contacted Gianni Apitalia Savorelli to ask if there were any requests in the last season of "stock funds" of coumaphos. Savorelli refuted this hypothesis, adding that coumaphos is forbidden to buy it and should use the right products for veterinary use (for dogs for example), which often require a prescription.
"We are adrift," this is the desperate cry of beekeepers Calabrian nearest to the area where it was discovered the first outbreak of small hive. The institutions latitano not to be expected compensation, orders will drop dramatically within the next year, companies will be brought on the pavement with the prohibition on the movement of bees. Everything is sacred if you want to eradicate the problem, but the suspicion is that in Italy is not only a lack of planning prior to stem the arrival dell'Aethina, but at this time lacks a plan to contain or eradicate the infestation. Information is lacking, lacking the protection of a strategic sector for agriculture. Everything is entrusted to the free initiative of bee-keepers, veterinarians, associations and magazines like ours. We really hope that this emergency has already assumed the dimensions uncontrollable. In any case, we at Apitalia we will always be in the forefront of the defense of beekeepers and beekeeping entire supply chain. So in the coming days we will offer timely information on both the evolution of the emergency is dell'Aethina contrast agents currently used in the rest of the world. |
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