As the world’s deadliest bee pest continues its slow spread across Australia, beekeepers are seeking out chemical-free treatments.
Beekeeper Jackie Morrison is looking for an alternative to miticide strips, a chemical treatment used in hives to kill varroa mite.
She says her customers want products free of chemical residues.
“They want to see clean, natural, pure, unadulterated honey and wax and that’s exactly what we aim to keep producing,” she said.
Jackie Morrison is researching chemical-free methods of varroa-mite control. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)
Ms Morrison has travelled the world on a AgriFutures-sponsored Nuffield scholarship to research chemical-free solutions for managing varroa mite in warm climates.
“I’m confident from what I’ve seen that I can avoid using the synthetic miticides that have problems with mites building resistance and problems with residues in wax and honey,” Ms Morrison said.
“And if we can avoid even using organic acids we certainly will.”
Looking to Europe for solutions
Ms Morrison and husband Luke Edwards, who run HoneyVale Farm in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, didn’t find the answers in Hawaii, mainland USA or New Zealand, which are still “very chemically based”.
It wasn’t until they visited Europe, the UK, Germany and Sweden that they found solutions that might be adaptable for the tropics.
Ms Morrison said Europe had been dealing with varroa mite for 47 years.
“They’ve put a lot of research into better solutions,” she said.
“They’re trying really hard to come up with biotechnical methods for making brood breaks [removing bee larvae and pupae from a hive to prevent varroa mite reproducing] and for trapping mites.
“So you can put your queen into a summer holiday home and trap mites in brood frames [from the bee hive] and get rid of them with chemical-free methods.”
Ms Morrison said there were now overseas beekeepers with up to 250 hives managing varroa totally chemical-free.
“There are bigger players in places like Austria that are running 15,000 hives,” she said.
“They might have up to one third of them where they’re successfully breeding varroa-resistant bees that don’t need to be managed for varroa mite at all, which is obviously the ultimate for a bigger player.”
Mite-killing heat device
Ana Martin and Sven Stephan were determined to find a chemical-free way to treat their 200 hives on the NSW mid-north coast.
They came across a device that works by heat-treating brood frames at a temperature that kills mites but leaves developing bee pupae unharmed.
“Eighty per cent of the mites are in the brood, so straight away we’re killing 80 per cent of the mites,” Mr Stephan said.
There are concerns though that the units, at about $6,000 each, may be too costly for small-scale beekeepers.
“They’re made in Austria and they are a bit large so they are costly to bring to Australia,” Ms Martin said.
Finding a chemical-free treatment is important to Ana Martin and Sven Stephan. (Supplied: Ana Martin)
The pair also acknowledged that large-scale producers may see the process of treating each brood frame as too time-consuming.
Depending on the size of the unit, 10 to 20 frames are treated at a time for two hours.
But Ms Martin said treatments currently available were also costing beekeepers.
“Some of the treatments, you’re not supposed to have any honey and with many of the treatments you’re meant to throw out any frames that are tainted from the chemicals,” she said.
“So when you count all of those costs, there are labour and costs involved with any varroa treatment.”
Commercial beekeeper Steve Fuller said he struggled to see how the heat-treating method could work in commercial-sized apiaries with large numbers of hives.
“If I was to turn around and take the brood out of one box and the brood out of another box and put it in there for two hours, where are all the bees going to go that I’ve got to shake off then?
“But for a small one or two or three hives in the backyard, yes it could possibly work fine.”
Steve Fuller says the heat-treating method is better suited to beekeepers with smaller numbers of hives. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)
Mr Fuller said certain chemicals would taint honey, which was why they were not allowed to be used with honey supers, where the bees store honey.
“It turns a colour, it leaves a taste in it, it doesn’t leave a residual in the sense an MRL [maximum residue limit] that’s too high or it’s harmful to humans, it just leaves an unpleasant taste,” he said.
Crowdfunding for varroa device
The Eurobodalla Amateur Beekeepers Club, in south-east NSW, has turned to crowdfunding to raise money to purchase a chemical-free device.
Club secretary Glenda Clapin said the spread of varroa was inevitable.
“We do have a lot of commercial beekeepers moving hives into the area, so the members of the club know that it’s only a matter of time until varroa is here,” she said.
The Eurobodalla Amateur Beekeeping Club is crowdfunding to raise money for a chemical-free device. (Supplied: Eurobodalla Amateur Beekeeping Club)
Ideology, cost and what they say is customer preference are some of the reasons amateur beekeepers are interested in non-chemical solutions.
“I sell my honey at the farmers markets and customers are really keen to know that there hasn’t been chemical treatment in the hive where the honey comes from,” Ms Clapin said.
“But the equipment is expensive and we just don’t have the membership or the funds to be able to raise that sort of money.”
