> In a recent Bee-L, Chris Allen mentioned that we in Australia have a
> very strict quarantine system in place.
 
<Etc.>
 
This subject is a fascinating one:  the idea that law and regulation
can control people 100%.  (and >0.0001% avoidance in this case can
mean failure of all efforts).
 
Interestingly enough, inspite of strong laws against all manner of
behaviour, all that can be accomplished is a _reduction_ in the
outlawed acts.
 
Canada has strong prohibitions aginst imports of bees from the US,
yet tens of thousands of US queens find their way into Canada
annually -- at least if I am to believe rumours from usually
reliable sources.
 
Canada has had regulations against import of bees on comb -- or even
 comb -- from the States as far back as I can remember, but
nonetheless I recall stopping at the truck weigh station at Floods in
BC twenty years or so ago when I was returning from wintering in the
Fraser Valley:  I had a friendly chat with a Highway patrolman at
the scale who asked -- seeing the nice white hives tied down on my
deck --  if the hives I had on the truck were coming back from the
States.
 
I asked why he wondered that.  "Why?", he said, "Oh, every year for
years a fellow drove through here in the fall taking his beehives
south to California, and came back every spring with his bee hives
(not packages -- I carefully assured myself of that!)." Hmmmm.
Right  under the nose of the authorities.
 
And probably quite innocently.
 
Another tale: Years and years ago, I was a bee inspector.  Shortly
after leaving that job, I was looking through the ads for a Hobie
Cat (sailing catamaran), and I happened to go to look at one in
Calgary.  well, you know what happens if you let it slip that you
are a beeman -- everyone has to tell you everything he knows about
bees.  So this fellow who was selling the boat , immediately started
talking about his friend who had a few hives.  Seems that felow was
a European immigrant and had gone back to the old country.  On
returning, he had slipped a few queens of the stock he had used and
loved as a boy into his pocket and flown home and told his friends
about it.  I'm sure he had no idea about laws and mites.
 
there is good reason to believe that the way varroa got into some
southern BC area was simply that Portuguese immigrants on the US side
took bees across to their families in closely adjacent areas  in
Canada when visiting -- they can just walk across a bridge ---
without knowing about the law.
 
Between the US and canada, I understand that there are long areas
where anyone can walk -- or drive -- across the international border
without knowing -- or being bothered by anyone most of the time.
This is one story about the origin of varroa in  southern Manitoba.
 
I have noticed that ignoring the law when convenient tends to be the
rule rather than the exception -- when the regulators aren't looking.
 If you drive on a freeway, and drive the limit, you will see how
seriously our fellow citizens take the law -- especially one that
gets in their way.  If they even think twice about the law, it is
mostly about avoiding capture.  When it comes to obscure things like
laws about bees, many -- including beekeepers -- are blissfully
ignorant of the rules.
 
Anyhow to get back to the point: I certainly don't believe for a
minute that the only bees getting into Aus, the US, or any other
country are those that the authorities know about, or that it will
ever be otherwise.
 
The reasons that the pests which surely must accompany them
occasionally do not get a foothold is simply dumb luck.  maybe we do
not see an outbreak because the pests usually bring their nemesis
(diseases and parasirtes) with them, and until a healthy sample
makes it across, they do not stand the stress of transplanting to the
new environment, or perhaps they kill their host before getting
established.
 
Now, I don't know much about  tropilaelaps, but I was asking around.
I'm sure glad that many on the list here are watching out for it and
we sure don't want it.
 
However, from what I have heard, it is not something restricted to
bees.  It even uses mammals as a host.  I understand that that
includes people and rats.  Since these two scourges travel freely
throughout the world, we wonder why they are not here already.
 
I confess I am a bit lazy when it comes to researching further, but
think that maybe we should know our enemy. Maybe someone has better
information on this pest at her fingertips and would like to discuss
it a bit further.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0
Internet:[log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.internode.net/~allend/>