Allen said:
>Apparently aduly SHB are quite comfortable in a cluster of bees and >not
>all obvious to people looking at the cluster.  We're talking about
>importing thousands of clusters of bees.

When SHB (small hive beetle) first arrived in Florida I went to the source
to see SHB for myself. In the office of the largest beekeeper in Florida I
was shown a small observation hive and told to find the SHB. I could not
find a single beetle. Then the OB hive was shaken and SHB was all over the
place LAYING EGGS.

In my opinion it would be impossible to ship the amount of packages out of
an area of small hive beetle (AUS) without shipping SHB. They are simply too
hard to spot in a three pound cluster of bees looking through a screen wire.

Jim said:
> Which is the "critical" pest they fear?  SHB or AHB?  Can either
> survive an Alberta fall, let alone a winter?  Where does actual
> science factor into the decsion-making process?

I have asked many researchers the above questions. We do not know for sure
but all the researchers I asked seem to think both could survive in Canada.

SHB because they can winter in the bee cluster.

AHB because the bee which would arrive in Canada would have acclimated  to
colder weather by its movement through California and into Alberta (cold
does not stop AHB in my opinion but other environmental factors seem to
which is proven to me by the movement stopping in Texas).

Not I or any of those researchers can say for sure but unlike the
predictions of our most noted researchers AHB is moving north through
California (current AHB map was presented by the Tucson lab ( Dr. Hoffman)
at the ABF convention and the main new territory is in California) .

The eastward movement in Texas and the northern movement out of Texas has
all but stopped  for a yet to be discovered reason (HYPOTHESIS  exist and
have been published in the ABJ).

The prediction of the spread of AHB by the migratory beekeeper to all parts
of the U.S. so far has only been a figment of several AHB researchers
imagination.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison