I, too am firmly against the introduction of Bumble Bees to the Australian
mainland. Horticulturalists who can't grow enough tomatoes to make a profit
just aren't trying hard enough. I gather that they want to increase yields
to compete with cheaper imports from countries with bumblebees. They would
do better to increase the quality of their tomatoes, supermarket ones are
tasteless and virtually inedible.
We already have enough pollinators out there and there is only so much
nectar to go around. I was very upset to see feral Honeybees at the summit
of Mt. Sonder (Western McDonnells, ~20km west of Ormiston Gorge) in June
last year.
We have native Blue-banded Bees in our garden and we imported a hive of
native Trigona bees a year or so ago. We had hoped they would give us better
pollination of our Macadamias but they (and the Blue-banded) seem to prefer
Gerberas, Stocks, Phlox and Rocket (Arugula).
There is an active group of people promoting native bees (see
www.aussiebee.com) who are lobbying against the Bumblebee proposal.
Good to see Catalyst bringing these issues to the public's attention, where
would we be without the ABC?
Paul Osborn
Cooranbong, NSW
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