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Thread: Possible small hive beetle in Switzerland

  1. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Only a matter of time though if imports continue and lets hope this scare focuses a few minds.
    I know you are an experienced beekeeper of long standing and widely respected. You MUST have known what the picture showed. Your views on imports are of long standing and widely known. Busybeephilip is of (as far as I know) similar views on imports, yet observed, commented, and stuck to the evidence.

    If you jump in on an obviously false or erroneous story and knowingly use it to support your cause you do it no good. Thats just fanning the flames of a scare campaign.

    Whilst we have no wish to be dealing with SHB and should always be taking sensible (yes, I know that can mean vastly different things to different people) to keep the risk of it arriving very low, its important to stick to facts and keep things in proportion. However it is something that will at the very worst be merely a secondary pest of the hive (its not a bee disease) and folk with a powerful agenda about imports are making a major scare out of a relatively minor pest. All the really scary pictures are from tropical or sub tropical areas.

    Given its main historic vectors of international spread it is most unlikely that it has not been to these islands before. Probably several times. Do we want it? Of course not, but even if it does arrive it will be a rarity most will never see. An apocalyptic and catastrophic arrival as some are choosing to portray it it is not.

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    If this is an actual photo of the problem, and not a library pic, then....
    I think we could all see what was in the photo, the doubt about it was as you yourself posted above.
    It is quite scary how believable that this little beastie had jumped so far so quickly is.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    You MUST have known what the picture showed.
    No, the Swiss inspectors had 'emergency meetings', and had already put into place movement restrictions - they clearly didn't know it wasn't SHB, so why should Jon have had that certainty? I've seen it in vials and I was far from certain that it wasn't SHB.

    We should be able to discuss these things without suggesting that folk are knowingly using false arguments. I think that some of your arguments are false, but I'm not going to suggest (or think) that you *know* they are!

    G.

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    The picture was obviously scavenging fly larvae feeding on the rotting corpses of bees.....not at all SHB food.

    Surprised at two things. 1. That a bee inspector could have though it SHB. 2. The zeal with which a few seized on a plainly wrong diagnosis.
    Plaudits and respect to busybeephilip for using his eyes and experience.
    Zero tolerance of risk on the inspectors part. Quite correct!


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  5. #25
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    I know you are an experienced beekeeper of long standing and widely respected. You MUST have known what the picture showed.
    Only just seen this post.
    Disappointed to see an unwarranted personal attack.
    After Calum posted, I followed links in German, which is a language I don't have, and translated documents in Google translate which described crisis meetings of the bee inspectorate in Switzerland and a discussion of whether the eggs were laid by a single SHB female on such and such a date.
    Are you saying we should keep that information off the forum when SHB is a potential issue for all of us.

    I know you are only protecting what you perceive to be your own business interests but bear in mind when you bring in imports from Italy you are taking a risk on behalf of every beekeeper in the UK. That's your call, but meanwhile don't be surprised if many of us continue to call for a ban on the import of nucs and packages. As I have said elsewhere the import of queens is much lower risk. For all we know SHB could already be out of Italy elsewhere in Europe.
    One scenario is that is spreads slowly at the speed the beetles can fly and the other is that we will see sudden unexpected outbreaks due to the movement of bees from one place to another.

  6. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Disappointed to see an unwarranted personal attack.
    What was unwarranted about it?

    Post 7 you had it as confirmed. (re reading the rather strange translation I can see how you might have taken this view, but the rest was also very weird)
    Post 8 you already had bee importers or migratory beekeepers to blame.


    Nobody is importing nucs to my knowledge. That would be very foolish apart from in exceptional circumstances. As for my business interests? Well I did this originally as a common good project (you would be surprised at how many want and NEED the bees) and it most certainly does not generate money on a scale that you could call it greed driven. I do not NEED to be doing this but also do not want to be cut off from the large reservoir of excellent stock that is out there, even while at the same time building up a unit to breed thousands of queens and hundreds of nucs, both for our own use and sale.

    To be honest my first impression on seeing that picture linked to a story like that was that it was someone's very unfunny idea of an April Fool story about a very serious matter. Only when I then researched it did I find that the story was in fact real.

    ps.....just noticed that a huge chunk of this post ( a response to Gavin's latest input to this thread) has not appeared........................

    May recompose it later........off out now.
    Last edited by Calluna4u; 03-04-2015 at 11:44 AM.

  7. #27
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    Well chatting to the local beekeepers supply shop owner, they also recently stopped 80 colonies on the Swiss border and destroyed them. Something about the documents was not 100% correct... Couldn't let them in, nor go back. At least they take it seriously


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  8. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by Calum View Post
    Well chatting to the local beekeepers supply shop owner, they also recently stopped 80 colonies on the Swiss border and destroyed them. Something about the documents was not 100% correct... Couldn't let them in, nor go back. At least they take it seriously


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    That's is not 'taking it seriously'......................that is a tragedy. Officialdom gone mad. Surely they could at least have allowed them to return to source.

  9. #29

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    I think the point is Calluna that it was a personal attack. Maybe there's a better way to discuss things than using those?

  10. #30

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    In post 8 people like myself, as I am both a bee importer (a very careful one) and a migratory beekeeper, were directly attacked and blamed. We were already guilty. All over an unconfirmed and ultimately false story. I certainly reserve the right to react in these circumstances. I would be as critical as anyone if ANY person brought in bees from the affected area or even close to it.

    Anyway, Jon etc need have no direct fear, as none of the packages this year (only 1200 available from SAFE sources there and all fully committed) are destined across to Ireland, north or south. However, around 70% of them are destined for entities (associations, resellers and nuc vendors) who will onward move them to amateur beekeepers around the UK. NBU are kept fully informed of all recipients, and the clients have to do so too. Most of the balance are destined for commercial beekeepers in southern England. None are for ourselves so they will not be turning up in Speyside, unless in ones and twos through onward sales by others.

    As an aside, it is our standard advice that a package is really just a way to get your hive filled up again or started off. Then, especially if you live in a harsher climate area, some time in the season to requeen it with something more suited to your area. The queens we buy are actually selected by us, and are suitable for MOST of the UK, but the wilder windier and wetter areas need something different.
    Last edited by Calluna4u; 04-04-2015 at 07:58 AM.

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