> Maybe Allen Dick will comment as many U.S. beekeepers are puzzeled by
> Paul Vanwestendorp  placing the blame directly on the Kashmir virus
> and not varroa.

I know Paul well, and he is no fool.

I think the article http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/displayarticle1597.html was
qualified subsequently by
http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/displayarticle1597.html, but I imagine the
reporter did not comprehend the mention of varroa, if it was made.

All this fuss was at about the time of the avian flu (a vurus) outbreak in
chickens in BC that resulted in millions of chickens being slaughtered. See
http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_chickens20040405

Reporters hear what they want to hear, and will try to tell you what to say.

Near Calgary, there is a big stir about sour gas wells being drilled in the
region (with very stringent safety measures).  The opponents seize on
anything -- honest or not -- to try to create public panic.  Somehow a story
got into the Globe & Mail about bees being affected by sour gas wells and I
had a reporter phone up yesterday for corroberation.

I had a very hard time getting her to hear what I said, not what she wanted
to hear.  What she was describing apparently came from some professor who
had linked snail problems with H2S and somehow extrapolated it to bees.  It
sounded more like ithe effects of imadaclprid.  Whatever.  I said it *might*
be possible, but I had never heard of it and doubt it -- and I use gas well
roads for bee access all the time.  They are well graveled :)

I guess I should not have allowed that 'anything is possible'.  She wanted
to quote me.

I finally had to tell her flat out that someone was pulling the presses leg
as far as I can tell, and that she needed to track down some credible
beekeeper who had actually seen what she described.   It wasn't going to be
me.

When you talk to reporters about something you know a little about, and you
see what they are ready to believe, you start to think that maybe it isn't
really worth watching the news.

allen
A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/

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