A beekeeper's petition to stop the New South Wales government eradicating hives in response to the varroa mite outbreak has amassed nearly 25,000 signatures.
Dolfi Benesh saw 51 hives on his Jilliby property in the state's central coast destroyed last week because they sat inside an eradication zone.
"My bees got killed. They were healthy with no infestation of the flea [varroa mite] at all," he said.
"Even if they did have varroa, I know how to clean them … I could've saved them.
"There was no need whatsoever to kill a single bee."
Mr Benesh is from Israel, where varroa mite is already present across the country.
"It took us a long time to learn how to treat it back in the day, but now the world is full of knowledge and experience and we know how to treat varroa," he said.
"It's not a big thing. It's not a threat.
"It's easy to treat. It would be a matter of three days to clean the bees, spray them and get them back to normal."
Calling for evidence
Mr Benesh started the petition two weeks ago in which he asked the NSW government to release scientific evidence underpinning their eradication strategy.
"I've tried to get the scientific explanation to their action," he said.
"They couldn't come up with a something that says this is our scientific plan.
"Taking an area and killing all these bees in it and going for the feral bees, which I've never seen before, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
"This is not the scientific approach."
Eradication potential
NSW Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders said the varroa mite response plan was developed by the National Management Group some time ago.
"This was the Commonwealth government, the state government, the pollination and honey bee industries all unanimously agreeing that it was both technically feasible but also economically beneficial to do the eradication as opposed to living with [varroa mite]," he said.
Mr Saunders said the circumstances surrounding the outbreak impacted the response plan.
"If it had been found in 300 different locations in New South Wales, all on the one day, that would be a different situation," he said.
"Given we saw in the initial discovery of the sentinel hives around the Newcastle port area, the decision was made fairly quickly that an eradication plan would work."
Mr Saunders said the National Management Group looked to New Zealand for advice after discovering the mite was in Newcastle.
"The possibility of eradication here was completely different to New Zealand and the advice from experts who have been through it before was that we could actually achieve that eradication here," he said.
Association supports eradication
NSW Apiarists' Association president Steve Fuller keeps 5,000 beehives on the north coast but has had hundreds of them eradicated due to varroa mite.
He said he supported the government's decision to try and eradicate the mite completely, rather than live with it, as it would have had a major impact on the industry.
"It might be a bit of a strong response but we're also in a situation that if we don't do it, it's going to cripple the industry," Mr Fuller said.
"Living with varroa is the last thing we want."
But Mr Benesh said the eradication of hives and the feral bee baiting program would force some beekeepers out of the industry.
"The eradication of bees is the eradication of old beekeepers," he said.
"I see this as a horrible action against old or middle-aged people who are left with nothing."
