Varroa in the cells of old comb. (Illustration image) Photo: Jean-Baptiste Strobel / Biosphoto / Biosphoto via AFP
Australian authorities working to limit the spread of the destructive varroa mite are doing so with help from New Zealand scientists.
Work to eradicate the mite, which can kill off entire colonies of bees, has been underway since it was first discovered in New South Wales in June.
But it has been spreading and has been found in orchards near the Victorian border.
The mite which feeds on a bee's body tissue has been in New Zealand since 2000. So when it was first discovered in Australia, authorities reached out for advice.
Plant and Food Research apicultural scientist Michelle Taylor spent two weeks in Australia, talking through the New Zealand response, and has been providing on-going advice.
"The main thing it's important they do is keep communication lines open. The reason we got varroa down the bottom of the North Island is because we hadn't connected with our logging industry, so a log with a swarm of bees was transported from Northland to Wellington."
Dr Taylor said if there was clearer communication in New Zealand, varroa would not have spread as quickly as it did - a key learning Australia could take.
"Once it arrived here, we were quick to do research on varroa monitoring and education and we created a great varroa manual, which is now being sold to beekeepers in Australia.
"New Zealand capped its losses at about 15 percent pretty early on, whereas other countries got up to 60-70 per cent.
"I wish the Australian industry well, it's not a pleasant time, its very stressful for everyone involved."
Victoria University professor of ecology and entomology Phil Lester said varroa was the biggest issue facing apiculture so it was worth Australia giving eradication a good go, despite that being really difficult.
"A single individual mite can reproduce quite well, so a female will invader a bee cell, it'll lay an egg, that first egg hatches into a male, that male then mates with his sister mites that are reproduced in that one cell.
"So it only takes one varroa mite to start a population to start a colony that can spread across Australia, so they've got the challenge of eradicating all mites, every single last one, to achieve eradication for the country."
