Hello John & All,
John wrote:
 If true, this is probably the single most important message I have ever
seen posted on this newsgroup.
* Merced County California has detected Small Hive Beetle or SHB (Aethina
 tumida Murray)  during a routine apiary strength inspection of 198 colonies
on 2-28-01. > CDFA Meadowview lab confirmed the sample on 3-2-01.  The bees
were > originally purchased from an out-of-business Florida based
 operation.  The colonies traveled from Florida to Maine to  North Dakota
and then to California in October of 2000.*
Why would you be so surprised John?  Did the USDA think they could prevent
the SHB from entering California through migratory beekeeping? Hell you
can't even find the SHB in a package of bees. They can hide in a 1/8 inch
crack. I can't (can) believe they couldn't find the SHB when the hives were
checked in Maine & North Dakota. I said on Bee-L a long time ago we had
better learn to live with SHB. Maybe our congressmen can legislate the SHb
away. What are they going to do to the beekeeper trying to survive in a
tough commercial beekeeping environment? Burn his hives? That's what the
USDA did with the first finds of tracheal and varroa mites. Did it work?
Only put the beekeeper out of business. I wasn't surprised in the least only
surprised the find didn't  happen last year or the year before that.
Pollination is the most important aspect of the beekeeping industry.
California is always one of  the first to get new beekeeping plagues.
Almond growers are begging beekeepers all over the U.S. for hives for
pollination because the California beekeepers simply can't cover the demand.
Therein lies the problem.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa, Missouri