Sir, – I would like to draw your attention of you readers to the article (Jan 7) on Plan Bee.

Plan Bee has very smartly seen a good niche market – and mostly 'more grease to their elbow' for providing a service to farmers and agriculturalists, who can now have the gain without the pain!

We like the idea of Plan Bee. But potential hosts should be advised to ask Plan Bee where they got the bees and their queens before welcoming them onto their land.

Farmers are very familiar with the need for strict biosecurity measures to protect animals and crops from imported pests and diseases.

It is my understanding that this enterprise imports bees mainly from outside the UK, including Italy and Africa.

So ask them to give you assurances that 'your bees' and their queens are totally British in origin.

Why? Because there is grave danger of importing a new threat to bees and bee-keepers with bees and queen bees from outside the UK.

Small Hive beetle would make a lovely companion to Varroa Destructor which got here in 1992 by combined government refusal to control imports and bee-keeper refusal to engage with proper biosecurity measures. Once present it is even harder to control than varroa and wreaks havoc on bee colonies. This beetle is also a pest of bumble bees, so fruit and tomato growers who use bumble bee colonies for pollination would be affected as well.

This serious pest – a native of Africa - was reported in Calabria and Sicily in 2014 and again in August 2016.

An EFSA scientific report of March 2015 pointed out that these areas produced queen bees in large quantities for shipment to many places in the EU. Moreover

the report expressed concerns about the ability of agencies local to the occurrence to eradicate or properly police it, and the suitability of current intra EU regulations for controlling its spread.

If the small hive beetle gets here it will be – like Varroa - due to combined government refusal to control imports and bee-keeper refusal to engage with proper biosecurity measures. There are more stringent controls on the import of trees than there are on bees.

Currently the only control is the good behaviour of the beekeeper in sourcing bees from the UK! The Scottish Government has declined to ban the import of bees – although there is legislation that would permit it.

So by all means welcome the bees but please try to ensure that you are not also welcoming a very serious bee pest.

Clare Darlaston

Glasgow