Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Oldbeavo on June 26, 2022, 05:56:37 am
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Hi Folks
In Australia the Department of Agriculture run sentinel hives at all ports.
On Friday it was announced that Varoa destructor had been detected in a hive at Newcastle port.
Newcastle is a large port North of Sydney. All of the state of New South Wales has been put into no bee movement type quarantine.
No more info other than what i have posted.
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Sorry, friend.
You at least have the advantage of being privy to 30-ish years of experience/ conversations about management.
I hope y'all get together, make a coherent plan, stick to it, and eradicate the thing from your land.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
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You may like a little more information..
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-06-24/varroa-mite-detected-at-newcastle-port/101180446
BEE HAPPY Jim134 :smile:
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It can be slowed down and controlled but very unlikely to be successful at being eradicated. The rest of the planet has been trying to get rid of it for 40 years. The worst possible thing to do (for the industry) would be to start killing off colonies trying to rid them of a persistent pest that kills colonies. Dead by people or dead by mites, they are dead. That is hard rationale to support. Everyone else has tried that, and failed. At least with education and methods, the bees have a chance and do survive the mite. The bees cannot survive the bee-killer-people mental approach.
The best course of action is to put full efforts at getting best-practices information in front of beekeepers and ensure ALL are quick to study to learn the management techniques fast as possible. Start the training classes now.
Just sayin? .. the mite is there now, gotta step up the game and adapt to live on with it. Welcome to the next -level up- of beekeeping.
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No doubt we are all rooting for you! I am afraid HoneyPump is on the right trail, concerning eradication.
If it is not eradicated in OZ. I am sure there are others but the only place 'that I know of' that is left to be varroa free, is the Isle of Man.... Their is a gardener/beekeeper there who at my last correspondence states, the Isle of Man is varroa free.
Phillip
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So far the eradication program seems to be well under way. There are two factors that make me optimistic about eradication.
One is it is winter over here so there is limited natural bee movement.
Two is that there is a mountain range West of the outbreak that provides a natural barrier as there will not be any commercial bees in this area.
I think the key to the eradication is the feral population, has it got into this population. No reports of any yet.
As the majority of Oz BK's are migratory, some with a range of over 1000k's and so Varroa control for us over here would be a nightmare.
Also we have had the experience of watching other countries deal with Varroa has us to modify the attack on the mite.
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So far the quarantine areas are holding with no new reports outside these areas.
The authorities are still on eradication program.
I hope they are successful as i don't want to bee keep with Varroa.