Brits Have a Turkish Bee in Their Bonnet

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 31 July 2019)


                                    Beware the Turk!


A family in Bristol, England, noticed that a bee was living in their
backyard and had built a nest in their home.  The matter is being
referred to as "The Turkish Bee" and the UK's environmental agency
DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has
warned that the bee could damage the ecosystem and should be killed.
Experts say that non-indigenous bees could spread killing viruses
among the native English bees.

The bee in question - the 'Osmia Avosetta'-type found only in Turkey
and Iran - has not yet been caught but, nevertheless, continues to
build its nest (!).  After the Toy family returned from a vacation in
Turkey they began to see the cacoons of a foreign bee in their yard.
Ashley Toy (49) explained that the family researched the very odd-
looking bee and learned that it was an Osmia Avosetta.


Osmia Avosett is newly-famous for making colorful nest from 
flower petals. 

"wanted" bee builds pretty nests click here for details.

Ashley's husband said that "the bee comes in the house every
morning when we open the door. After that it comes and goes. I've
never seen anything like it!"

Nevertheless, Tim Lovett, the former chief of the English Bee-
Keepers Association, has said that "this won't cause a problem.
In order for it to be dangerous the bee has to create a place where
it can reproduce and the chance of this happening is very low. I
understand that the English officials want to give the impression
that they're doing something about this but I don't see any danger
here."

In England in 2004, officials asked citizens to inform them about
foreign bee sightings because donkey bees from Asia had been
seen in the environment.  In the past, donkey bees that have come
into the country have harmed honey bees, which are endangered.
Consequently, any "foreign bee" incidents are taken very seriously.