> They are intended as "disposable" pollination units, cruelly
designed to ignore the issue of long-term survival of the bumblebees once
pollination is complete.

Koppert moved their operation from Holland to Eastern Europe and now Turkey
I think; certainly the bumblebees that they now send to the UK are not
native (Bombus anatolis I believe) and users are required to destroy them
after they have served their purpose so that queens do not escape into the
environment.  What a joke!  Our most common native bumblebee (Bombus
terrestris) is rapidly becoming an endangered species.

Time to shut the stable door - even though this horse may have bolted there
will be plenty more.

We now have so many introduced species that are causing problems - mink,
grey squirrels, New Zealand flatworms, signal crayfish, Himalayan Water
Balsam, endless foreign races of honeybees, varroa, Nosema ceranae, new
strains of EFB... and the threat of small hive beetle, Vespa velutina,
tropilaelaps etc.  Will those in authority ever learn?

Best wishes
 
Peter
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

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