Dear George:

I am sorry to hear of your wife's passing.  We missed you at the Niagara
meetings.  Sounds like you've had a tough year, all around.

On a different note, watch for next month's Bee Culture.  Kim's running an
article on the hybrid popular groves and the pesticide issues in Minnesota.
 I rushed from Niagara to MN, talked to the bee association, then toured
the groves.  I, Dan Mayer, and Kim all agree -- basic orchard management is
needed.  Groves are islands, spread amongst the farmland, with weedy
understories of sweet clover, thistle, etc.  Trees, being hybrid, make good
worm food, so the grove managers spray and spray again.

Similarly, more than 30 beekeepers are lining up in a class action suit
against Bayer for Imidacloprid (North Dakota to Texas).  Looks to me like a
behavioral effect, as well as toxicity, with longer term persistence and
more accumulation of the chemical than ever expected.  Newest papers from
France, this chemical at low levels effects bee memory, olfactory sensory
system.

Overall, pesticide misuse and abuse in the U.S. is as bad as it ever was in
the 60s.  We've (Univ MT) proposed establishing an information clearing
center and test facility for pesticides (Mayer, myself) to serve the bee
industry.  A secondary purpose of the center will be education as well as
to move some of our equipment into day to day use for bee management --
anti-theft devices, hive weight monitoring via networked national
communications, etc.  The Smithsonian Insect Zoo and Discovery TV both want
to do displays/programs on our work.  I'd like to establish a bee
industry/pollination display in the Zoo, start a national bee program based
on the Victory Garden format.

Finally, we have submitted a paper for publication on bees conditioned to
search for targets based on odor alone, with no reward at the target.  In
summary, bee olfactory system can detect a few parts per trillion, maybe
even lower of explosives and other novel chemicals, the probability of
detection out to 500 ft from the hive in 1 hour is near perfect (98% or
better).  The conditioning is done at the hive, more or less cancelling out
any "dance" information, other than to recruit (maybe), more bees to the
conditioning plates.  Amazing results.  Stats folks can't believe the
results -- good thing they were blind test conducted by an independent
group.  If one pretends bees initially investigate the area around their
hive (right after being delivered to the site) more or less randomly (which
I have misgivings about), you can go to radar signal processing approaches
and generate a Receiver Operating Curve.  The bees beat any known radar
system.  They are a near perfect detector.

We will be thinking about you.  I want you to know that I appreciate your
consistent call for good information, warnings against chemical use, etc.
Too many arm chair experts with one or two hives and 1 season's experience.

Thank you for your long term service to the industry.  I hope your health
will stabalize and that we will see you on the list for a long time.

Best Regards

Jerry