Poison may be cause of mass bee deaths
A Murchison beekeeper who has lost hundreds of hives has sent some of the dead bees to the Ministry for Primary Industries for testing.
Early indications are that the bees were accidentally poisoned, not wiped out by disease.
Beekeeper Ricki Leahy said while the bees in his apiary in the Mangles Valley were continuing to die, he was monitoring hives in a number of apiaries and was hopeful that despite being weakened, some of them may survive.
Leahy, who is an ApiNZ board member, produces Tutaki Honey through his business Trees and Bees. He said the 40 hives used for queen rearing around his home had been affected, as well as another 186 hives located half a kilometre down the road.
He had spoken with AsureQuality, and said the symptoms indicated it was a poisoning incident as opposed to some kind of pathogen. Leahy said identifying the cause of death was crucial so they could determine the best way to resume beekeeping operations. ‘‘That may or may not determine what we can salvage out of the gear but I rather suspect we will be better off to get a big hole dug and burn the lot.’’ It appeared the incident was confined to several of Leahy’s apiary sites within the Mangles Valley and had not spread.
‘‘The heartening thing is we have had a few beekeepers phone up offering to help. It just goes to show at the end of the day the beekeeping industry is really holding hands.’’
An MPI spokeswoman said an apicultural expert was working with Leahy and bee samples had been sent to the Wellington lab for testing. ‘‘Routine tests will be carried out for all common bee pests and diseases as well as the possibility of inadvertent poisoning with agricultural pesticides.’’ The test results were expected to take a month. Bees are susceptible to a number of poisons, including insecticides and pesticides.
Nelson insect ecologist Richard Toft who developed the wasp bait Vespex said he was motivated to create a product that was safe for use around bees.
A protein-based bait, Toft said there was nothing in Vespex that was ‘‘remotely attractive’’ to bees. Vespex is used in Wasp Wipeout campaign and in order to use it, people needed to register and complete an online test to become an ‘‘approved user’’.
‘‘This is exactly why we have the stewardship requirements around the use of Vespex to control wasps, that is to make sure that everyone that is using it understands how it works and what not to do.’’
Toft said when it came to wasp control, it was vital not to mix anything sweet with insecticide to control wasps, as it became an immediate threat to bees. ‘‘Bees are insects, so basically any insecticide is potentially a threat to them.’’