BEEKEEPERS have been urged to take their insects in for a "health check", to see if they are harbouring a disease which may have contributed to wiping out a quarter of the Devon population.

Experts are growing increasingly alarmed at the escalating demise of bee numbers each season, with 23 per cent dying over winter this time last year.

Now, all beekeepers are being invited to have their bees tested for free, to see if they are carrying Nosema, a digestive disease which has developed a new strain.

Glyn Davies, from Ashburton, South Devon, a former national president of the Beekeepers' Association, said it would help build up a picture of exactly what the scale of the problem is.

"It is important that everyone who keeps bees should come along, even those who keep just a few hives," Mr Davies said.

Bees are crucial to the environment because of their role in pollination, and any significant drop affects plants, birds and other wildlife. Their significance has recently been recognised by the Government, which assigned £4.3 million to a 10-year plan to protect them, including cash to research the decline.

But for now, beekeepers are flummoxed, and many believe it is a combination of various factors which is proving so devastating.

Mr Davies urged all beekeepers to take a sample of about 30 bees from every hive to be tested for Nosema. The disease can only be spotted with a microscope, and experts will be on hand in Buckfast, South Devon, on Saturday and in Barnstaple, North Devon on Sunday.

The Beekeepers' Association is being supported by the Devon Apicultural Research Group and we will be joined by experts from the National Bee Unit in York.

Bees have also been threatened by Varroa, a virulent mite which feeds on the body fluids of adult and larval bees.

Recent environment conditions have put them under more strain. During the few summer weeks when bees gather and store most of their natural supplies for winter, the excessive rains and low temperatures of the last two years found beekeepers artificially feeding their stocks. Mr Davies said the industry was almost exclusively the domain of small-scale or hobby beekeepers.

But he said one good sign was the number of new people taking up the pastime. In Newton Abbot alone, more than 30 people are on the club's waiting list for bees.

Mr Davies said "shocking" Government figures showed there were 97,000 known bee colonies in England with 6,100 in Devon, before last year's losses. In 1947 when sugar was rationed and beekeepers were allowed extra for their bees, Devon had more than 18,000.

The bee inspection clinics will be at the Southpark Community centre in Buckfast on Saturday, March 21 and at the Castle Centre in Barnstaple on Sunday, March 22, each from 10.30am.