Hello All

Harry Goudie wrote:

>I think the Irish made a VERY PATHETIC effort to eradicate varroa. >I
really can't understand
>what their strategy was!  However it was probably slightly better than the
>English a few years earlier who seemed to offer no resistance at all to the
>invasion of the dreaded mite!

I believe that most people will now agree with me when I say that no
eradication effort will ever show any desirable results against varroa. Thus
if any criticism of the Irish is valid it is that they made any effort at
all. And here perhaps the English were right.

Perhaps the English saw the reality of the situation. Impose orders and they
will be flouted. Try to stop beekeepers moving bees from Southern England to
the Yorkshire moors, and they will drive on back roads. Try and destroy an
apiary, and many of the hives will be spirited away in the middle of the
night to the cousins in Cornwall or Lancashire, with varroa getting a fast
trip to its next home.

>However New Zealand may be a special case. >It is remote form all other
countries

There is no such thing as a remote country as far as beekeepers moving bees
is concerned. New Zealand will I believe agree with this.

Since bees cannot themselves move varroa to either Ireland or New Zealand,
the fact that the latter country is further from the nearest land mass that
the former country is totally irrelevant. 'Remotness' means that the human
agency moving varroa infested bees will take a little longer to get to the
remote country.

Sincerely

Tom Barrett
49 South Park
Foxrock
Dublin 18
Ireland