> Opposition spokesman John Cobb says the decision will have serious 
> ramifications for Queensland and the rest of Australia

> Most of these people are sadly misinformed. The Asian honey bee is 
> healthier than the european by far, mostly because it has not been bred by 
> people. They are wild all over Indonesia, southeast Asian and India

As one of the sadly misinformed people I have to disagree.   It will be 
catastrophic for the environment.  We have seen in the short term the 
effects and it is not pretty.  Aside from the floral competition angle, 
there is the loss of habitat.

The public will suffer.  In the short time the Asian bee has been here it 
has been found in, from memory, six (6) letter boxes.  There are no known 
records of mellifera swarms in letter boxes in the north.  Nests in houses 
are more prolific than mellifera.

Look at the effect in the Solomon Islands.  In less than eight (8) years, 
they went from 2,000 mellifera hives to five (5) due to competition.  They 
now are having to do a baiting program to reduce the number of Asian bees to 
try to establish the mellifera again.  It looks like they will need to do 
the baiting on a regular basis.

I could go on but I think I have provided enough evidence.  And you still 
think we are sadly misinformed?

Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA

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