More bee hives to be destroyed as varroa mite is detected in new area of NSW

Bee hives will be destroyed on the New South Wales mid-north coast after the damaging varroa mite has been detected for the first time at Kempsey. 

The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) said a beekeeper reported detecting two mites during a mandatory 16-week alcohol wash over the weekend.

“We were able to have our crews out there first thing Monday morning to check the apiary where, sadly, they did find another mite,” said deputy incident controller Shannon Mulholland.

Dr Mulholland says the beekeeper has not recently moved his hives, and the infection’s source is unknown.

She says the affected hives will be destroyed, and the DPI is working with other apiarists within the eradication zone.

“Both commercial and recreational beekeepers will be impacted by the zone,” Dr Mulholland said.

Rising concerns in industry

The detection has raised concerns within the industry that containment efforts are not working.

President of the Crop Pollination Association of Australia Steve Fuller says the detection comes at a time when bees are being moved for pollination services.

“[At] this time of the year, there’s a lot of beekeepers going down to the almonds, there’s also beekeepers [that] have gone over west towards the canola,” he said.

Mr Fuller has called on authorities and the NSW Agriculture Minister to re-evaluate their eradication strategy.

“How many trigger points are we going to break before we actually start talking about Plan B?” he said.

Mr Fuller said that with the euthanising of more hives, people in the industry are questioning their future.

“Do we keep on going in the honey industry or get out now while we can?” he said.

Beekeepers ‘devastated’ by news

Daniel Costa has been operating Costa Honey for 23 years, wholesaling and selling his own branded honey in the Kempsey area.

While about 240 of his 750 hives are in the purple surveillance zone, the business’s shed, containing all the tools required for beekeeping, lies within the red eradication zone, meaning they cannot be accessed.

“We have four loads in Griffith doing almond pollination at the moment. We can’t get gear to those loads,” Mr Costa said.

“We’re just in limbo at this stage.”

Mr Costa said he and friends in the local industry have been struggling to come to terms with the news.

“We’re actually devastated. [We] don’t know where to start,” he said.

“We’ve had droughts, fires, floods, we’ve had all the COVID regulations as well, and now we’ve got this.”

Despite the latest detection, the NSW DPI is still confident total eradication is possible.

“That is still the plan and the primary strategy [and] whilst the new detection is disappointing, it’s also not unexpected,” Ms Mulholland said.

“We’re putting a lot of effort into our tracing and investigations teams to understand how the mites got to Kempsey, and we will be releasing more information on that in the coming days and weeks.”

NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty said the government remained committed to eradicating the mite.

“‘I’m very sorry for the keeper that’s found this mite in their bees in Kempsey, but the process is the same as it has been everywhere else,” she said.

“We need to continue to focus our work on eradication.”

The new case brings the number of infected premises to 202 since varroa mite was first identified at the Port of Newcastle in June last year.