In a message dated 4/11/00 5:47:10 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> I believe the small hive beetle was first discovered on US soil in South
>  Carolina.

   Yup, Clemson had samples quite a while (I think a couple years) before it
was identified in Florida.  It is thought to have arrived on fruit, not bees.
>
>  Inspection program or not, you are not going to contain migratory
>  beekeepers.  They are a group that prides themselves on their independence.

   You may be on to something there, Aaron.         ;o)

    Commercial beekeepers have taken their lumps from the various pests. But
they don't like taking more lumps from official interference.

    One beekeeper put it this way, in the era of tracheal mite
quarantines.... "When everyone has tracheal mites, our problem will go away."
 No one has expressed that yet about the beetles, at least not to me.

Dave Green    Hemingway, SC
The Pollination Home Page   http://pollinator.com