IMPORTS STING: A plague from across the...

IMPORTS STING: A plague from across the border threatens Ventura County’s beekeepers: imported honey. “The industry is real depressed with the import situation,” said Martin Pettit, who keeps 800 colonies of bees in Santa Paula. . . . More than half of the county’s dozen commercial apiaries have been for sale in the past year, he said, because imports have ruined the market. . . . On another front, Pettit figures he’ll find a way to cope with the African “killer” bees expected to arrive in California next year. Even now, he said, “I get stung all the time.”