Dear Martin,

I hope that my answers did not sound flippant to you.  I have the greatest
respect for the business that you have built, and wish you the best of
continued success.

The problem with bee parasites are that once they are introduced onto a
continent, they are dang near impossible to eradicate.  E.g., only one
single female varroa mite is all it will take to eventually change the
continent of Australia from the status of varroa free to varroa infested.

There are two big differences between introducing a parasite to honey bees
rather than to other crops or livestock.  One, bees are highly mobile, and
two, there is an unmanaged feral population that can act as a parasite
reservoir.

For many parasites and pests of livestock, the model is sort of like baking
cookies.  If you screw up, you can clean up the mess (with an eradication
program) and start over.

However, with bees, the model is more like Russian Roulette.  Once a
parasite is introduced it is final--there is no going back.

Going back to the 95% confidence level of discovery statistics for
inspection for parasites, it is more akin to playing Russian Roulette with
20 chambers, one of which is loaded.

Now if the testing were done at the 99.999% confidence level, we would all
feel more comfortable.  Unfortunately, we can't afford that, except with
protocols such as Australia uses to import breeder queens.

I am well aware that parasite introductions are likely often by illegal bee
imports, such as in suitcases and fountain pens.  That sort of behavior by
beekeepers is either out of ignorance, or reprehensibly irresponsible.  But
it is a reality.

Such illegal movement can be expected to inadvertently(?) move parasites.
But the scale of opportunity for parasite introduction by this method pales
by comparison to the large-scale movement of organisms through legal trade.

Randy Oliver, who only recently saw his first small hive beetle.

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