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Home Planet: Bluetongue, Butterflies and Bees

11/01/2011

Bluetongue, Butterflies and Bees

BBC Radio 4 - Home Planet, Bluetongue, Butterflies and Bees

Will the cold winter halt the spread of bluetongue disease?

Bluetongue is a devastating disease of livestock spread by a midge. Will the cold weather halt its relentless northwards march by killing off the midge?

Bluetongue is a devastating disease of lifestock, spread by a tiny midge. It only arrived in the UK three years ago, carried on a tide of climate change. However, will a cold winter kill the midges and slow down the spread of disease? Does the molasses some councils are mixing with road grit pose a threat to roadside vegetation? Will disturbing a hibernating butterfly cause it harm? And we sift fact from fiction as we discuss the mating flight of the queen honey bee.

Making up the panel this week are ecologist Dr Lynn Dicks of Cambridge University; entomologist Richard Jones and Dr Chris Collins, a soil scientist from Reading University. 

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Presenter: Richard Daniel
Producer: Toby Murcott
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.

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