100,000 bees die in mass poisoning
Police investigating the deaths of hundreds of thousands of bees that came into contact with an insecticide near Nelson, are ‘‘following a number of lines of inquiry’’.
Murchison beekeeper Ricki Leahy approached police after tests carried out by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) found the presence of the insecticide, fipronil, in samples of dead bees taken from his apiaries in the Mangles Valley, near Murchison.
Police said they were investigating the incident, but it was ‘‘too early to determine the intent behind the poisoning’’.
Leahy had to burn more than 200 hives since he discovered dying bees on sites around his home in January, with another 26 hives fighting for survival in an apiary 2.5 kilometres away.
A neighbouring beekeeper had also lost 65 hives.
The veteran beekeeper hoped estimated losses and costs of several hundreds of thousands of dollars would be covered by insurance.
‘‘There’s a heck of a lot of work in building these hives up again. It was our whole breeding yard, our best hives were here, that we breed off.’’
Uncertainly about whether the poisoning was deliberate was ‘‘not pleasant’’, Leahy said.
He reported the incident to police last week, after MPI informed him of the test results, showing the slow-working insecticide was ‘‘the most likely cause’’ of the bee deaths.
Most of the substances containing fipronil were only available for use by professionals in the veterinary sector, pest control, and timber industry, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Products available in stores like flea treatments had ‘‘specifically designed packaging’’ like bait strips, and detailed label information regarding their proper use, EPA general manager of Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Fiona Thomson-carter said.
Fipronil is also contained in the wasp bait Vespex, used by the Department of Conservation to control common and German wasps on conservation land, and in Stuff‘s Wasp Wipeout campaign.
Nelson insect ecologist Richard Toft, who developed Vespex, said there was nothing in the protein bait that was ‘‘remotely attractive’’ to bees.
It would have been very hard to poison this number of bees by accident, he suggested.
It was possible that people incorrectly mixing the insecticide with sweet substances could have killed the bees, but unlikely, he said.
‘‘It would have to have been a really extreme effort ... you’re talking an extreme toxic reaction.’’