>  the small hive beetle that has arrived in Portugal and is threatening
>Europe now.


I have heard two different reports on how Aethina arrived in Portugal. One
says they arrived in package bees, and one says queens in shipping cages.
Which is it?? I can see how Aethina could easily be shipped in packages or
nucs, but not so in queen shipping cages. In shipping cages, the queen and
attendants are placed, by hand, into the cage, and I just wonder how the
beetles would get there. It just seems unlikely they would be transported
via caged queens...although I guess anything is possible.

Mike