Peter wrote:
The risks associated with controlled, authorised and deliberate imports have
been extremely well dealt with by biosecurity agencies at both ends of the
US-Australia supply chain, such that there is negligible risk of a problem
arising in that way.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

From what I understand they (The bio-security agencies) are non-existent on
our end. Someone walks by a skid of a hundred packages with a clipboard.
Just how do you inspect a thousand packages on your end? Got a lot of well
trained inspectors, have you? Forgive me if I am not reassured, and I do
suspect that your bee caution is excellent.

Bob was encouraged By the fact that A fine researcher like Denis inspected
the first nest. Let's think about this. They were a small clutch of bees
that were 30 feet up a sailboat mast. They were killed. Did anyone know they
were Ceranae before they were killed? If not, no special attention was paid.
Poison spray I suppose. Then saw the mast apart? Did Denis go to the bees or
did they travel to him? How long do the mites stay on dead bees? What do you
suppose the residue was that got put in front of Denis? God would have had a
hard time with that evidence. Bob, you give out with a ton of good
information but this one seems like blowing smoke. 

For the rest of it the original hive swarmed and some swarms were killed.
They made it into a wild area and no one really knows if all of them  have
been killed off. True they are miles from producing apiaries but they aren't
gone and they are a threat. 

It's probably true that we are more likely to catch a swarm from another
route. What exists in the world will eventually end up here. We have no
protections against it. We shouldn't dive in or delude ourselves.
Incidentally, T. Clarae is visible. No one knows what invisible things may
arrive in the gut of a bee.

Dick Marron

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