When the first Africanized honeybees hit the media many years ago, I
was concerned about the same thing.  I worked with Jim Bach, WSDept. Ag.
Bee inspector, Dr. Art Antonelli, state Extension Entomologist and Dan
Mayer, state Extension Entomologist in bees and pollination.  We
collaborative put together abooklet, with a velum binding, that gave
background information, lists of resources, value of bees to the state
economy, importance of honeybees for urban gardens, and a list of other
stinging insects (wasps, baldface hornet, paper wasp, mu d daubers,
etc.) and finally a list of contacts for specific information.
 
This was sent to major urban news media, state legislators and county
counsel members and county executives, and mayors of major cities.  The
goal was to avoid panic news articles.  At the very least we could
document that they had background info and resources to call.
 
 
We presume we were very successful because there were no followon stories
about potential for "killer bees" in Seattle that we might have expected.
 
We bound the booklets hoping for a professional look and something that
wouldn't get scattered across newsdesks and trash cans.  The money to
produce it was minor since we all bootlegged the costs out of normal
extension production and mail allocations.  Wa. State dept. of Ag. found
the $100 or so for the velum bindings.  Somewhere a copy still exists but
I'd have to did in my storage files.
 
SHARON J. COLLMAN
W.S.U. COOPERATIVE EXTENSION
URBAN IPM RESOURCE CENTER
@ CENTER FOR URBAN HORTICULTURE
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   GF-15
SEATTLE, WA  98195
 
PHONE: 206-543-8616
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