SHB in Southern Italy

[Bates]

Confirmed Small Hive Beatle in a bait hive in Southern Italy. See if they can control it but its a heavily populated area for bees.

Puts a big queston mark over some of us importers..

 

[Hivemaker.]

Yes, read about this on BEE-L. Could of already spread far and wide before it was discovered in the bait hive.

 

[dpearce4]

hope not to these shores. sounds like we need to be very much more aware of it.

hope they will be stopping imports from there for a while until a way of detecting can be agreed there are lots of bees imported from Italy.

should this maybe be on the main part of the forum also so beekeepers are more vigilant for it?

 

[Bates]

Feel free to start a topic. I am just worried for our future having been very reliant on queen imports from Italy.

 

[dpearce4]

As are most of the suppliers in the uk.

 

[Norton]

Latest announcements indicate that it is widespread and has been present for at least a year. Seems like local beekeepers tried to keep it secret and many have moved colonies away from the affected area - probably spreading it even further.

 

[mbc]

Latest announcements indicate that it is widespread and has been present for at least a year. Seems like local beekeepers tried to keep it secret and many have moved colonies away from the affected area - probably spreading it even further.

I saw that too, one indication has been the ramp up of caumaphos sales over the last year. I would say this latest information makes the likelihood of it already having spread far and wide to be an almost certainty. Bugger!

 

[dpearce4]

sounds like there might be a need to winter hives up in Scotland soon.