Insecticide poisoning sting for beekeepers

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 insecticide fipronil in samples of dead bees taken from his apiaries in the Mangles Valley, near Murchison.

Police said they were investigating whether the incident was malicious 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.

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.

Fipronil is also contained in the wasp bait Vespex, used to control common and German wasps.

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.