To: Allen and All. Allen's original post from Kansas City, Missouri has two different subjects with both warranting further discussion. The second subject: "The SHB (Small Hive Beetle) found in Australia turns out to be a different variety than the one in the US"; is indeed significant; and IMHO needs further discussion! "The Speedy Bee" reported in Volume 31, Number 4, Page 10 of their August 2002 publication the following article: "USDA- APHIS Proposes Revising Regulations for Import of Bees". The article refers to the notice in the August 19, 2002 "Federal Register" pages 53844-53867. The USDA-APHIS proposes to "allow, under certain conditions, imports of honey bees from Australia, and honey bee germ plasm and honey bees from New Zealand". Public hearings and the period of review for the proposal were reported to have been completed as of November 18, 2002. The pests that have been introduced (to the US) within the last 15-20 years have been costly to the environment, the beekeeper, the public, and the feral honey bee. North Carolina in the last four years has gone from one county with the SHB to now over 39. As a commercial beekeeper with pollination contracts I find it difficult to schedule movement of bees with certain areas of various counties under quarantine. I also find the additional expense and time necessary to deal with this pest frustrating as I have yards both with and without the SHB. This pest tends to take advantage of weak hives or supers with honey and no bees. Reports that I have heard from Florida and South Carolina are more serious in that the SHB lays prolifically even in strong colonies. The feral honey bee in this part of the country still is having a very hard time trying to survive tracheal and Varroa mites, now it must also survive the SHB. The opening of doors to importation of Australia's variety of the SHB could possibly be of no consequence at all, or it could be quite to the contrary. A lot of time, sweat, heartbreak, and money has been spent with mite problems by both the beekeeper and the scientist. Our southwestern states are now trying to deal with another unwanted insect, the AHB, and like the SHB it is not going to go away. We need to find out as much as possible about this Down-under Aussie Beetle, or "Aethina tumida australis" and prevent its entry into the Americas, at least until we know that we can deal with it. I am afraid that the genetic diversity that the feral honeybee of the eastern United States and Canada carries may be lost in the not too near future due to the many problems that mankind has introduced since European settlement in the Americas began; but then, one of the things it began with was the European honey bee which has been of tremendous benefit to all. Perhaps one hundred years from now the feral honeybee will be a SMR Russian-NWC-Buckfast-SMR Carnolian-Minnesota Hygenic-SMR Italian-AHB cross, and honey bees will be more highly managed than they are today. Chuck Norton Norton's Nut & Honey Farm Reidsville, NC High today: 38 Low tonight: 16 Two inches of snow on the ground and just about two more weeks until the red maple, Acer rubrum blooms! The Mahonia, Mahonia lomarifolia, in my Brown's Summit apiary has already started to bloom, spring can not be far away!