> -----Original Message-----
> From: Karen Oland [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 5:54 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [BEE-L] Small Hive Beetle
>

[cut]
> Had he treated when the beetle was first identified in his TN
> hives, the
> beetles would not (in all likelihood) be in the western end
> of TN and KY
> (where it is already causing losses).  Better, had he not
> moved infected
> hives from GA (in violation of state law, but with no real punishment
> defined), the entire state might still be clear.  Or at
> least, have a few
> more years before the beetle spread naturally.
>

SHB can move in many ways, and treatment is just about useless. While I
have no problem with the guess that this one individual may have moved
some beetles into the state the movement of produce (melons etc) can
bring with it the SHB. There are just too many vectors to contain this
pest.

I live in Pinellas county in Florida. That is the small peninsula about
half way down Florida's West coast. There are no migratory bee keepers
in this county. We are surrounded on three sides by water and I am down
near the tip so there is a long way between me any any movement of bees
by truck. Within a few months of the SHB outbreak on the East Coast, I
had them.