CATCH THE BUZZ
Is Apis cerena established in Australia? What about imports?

From Alan Harman

   The Queensland state government says it will continue to fight an invasion of Asian honey bees even though the potentially Varroa mite-carrying bees appear to have established themselves in far north Australia.

   Three more hives of the have been found, two of them close to the Cairns central business district.

   The Asian bee, Apis cerana, is the natural host to Varroa spp. including V. destructor and V. jacobsoni. A. cerana naturally co-exist with Varroa mites and have mechanisms to cope with them.

   Australia now is the only major honey producing country free of the Varroa mite.

   The Asian invaders were first found in the mast of a yacht in a boatyard in the Cairns suburb of Portsmith in May last year and since then 13 hives have been located and destroyed.

   State Department of Primary Industries Asian honey bee operational manager Charlotte Williamson tells the Australian Broadcasting Corp. the department will not give up the fight to eradicate the bee invaders.

Find out what's new at Mann Lake  www.mannlakeltd.com/catchthebuzz/index.html

 "At this stage it's certainly not considered endemic, we certainly feel we can get on top of the problem." she says. "We've had a lot of success with our bee-lining activities … with chasing the foraging bees to a nest. Certainly wins like this do give us encouragement so we are hopeful we will get on top of this incursion."

   A technique used for the first time in Queensland, monitors the diet of bee-eating birds. Officials track the birds to find their nightly roosting sites. Sheets are placed under the trees overnight and investigators then recover the pellets of regurgitated bee parts, including bees' wings, allowing for a search for wings from Asian honeybees.

   The Asian bee is common in countries to Australia's north including Papua New Guinea.

This message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeeping

www.BeeCulture.com

Subscribe to the Apis Newsletter http://apis.shorturl.com