The Queensland Beekeepers' Association (QBA) is relaunching its varroa mite surveillance campaign, warning the future could be "catastrophic" for Australia's multi-billion-dollar honey industry unless all apiarists take part in a national biosecurity blitz.
QBA secretary Jo Martin said the response to prove that Queensland was still varroa mite-free was "ringing alarm bells".
"We really don't have a lot of confidence in the results that we're currently sitting on in the system," Ms Martin said.
Ms Martin said she had experienced sleepless nights over the fact that just 10 per cent of voluntary hive surveillance work had been officially completed in Queensland.
Reports from just 5,000 of the 50,000 hives that Biosecurity Queensland was hoping to have mapped have been lodged with the Bee 123 online form and app, or the 13 25 23 hotline.
"This is a significant call to action," Ms Martin said of the re-launch of the campaign in the battle against the world's worst honeybee parasite.
Australia's honeybee industry was officially valued at more than $14 billion last year.
Apiarists estimated it was worth more than $20 billion, taking honey production, crop pollination services, and medicinal and cosmetic products into account.
First detected in the Port of Newcastle's sentinel hives in June, new infestations of varroa destructor mite were uncovered last month in NSW's Hunter, Central Coast and Mid North Coast regions.
They were traced back to hives moved from the initial infection zone.
"We had the same problem about guys not wanting to report their findings," NSW Apiarists' Association president Steve Fuller said of the initial response in his state.
"The last time I heard, we were up [to] about 85-86,000 hives [under] surveillance ... that's a lot of hives.
"But we need 100 per cent, we need everyone who has done any surveillance whatsoever to report."
ABC Rural has requested figures on varroa surveillance from the NSW, SA and Victorian governments.
In a statement, the NSW Department of Primary Industries confirmed that since its mandatory alcohol wash requirement came in under the varroa mite emergency order, around 4,300 reports had been submitted for more than 40,000 hives washed.
It said varroa mite had been detected at 150 sites in NSW, and all recent detections were discovered during ongoing surveillance activities.
"The most significant risk in the further spread of varroa mite is the illegal movement of beehives or apiary equipment by people," the statement read.
While he didn't have the latest results, Victorian Apiarists' Association president John van Wheeghel said Victoria was "way ahead of everyone else".
On his farm in Cloyna, near Murgon in Queensland's South Burnett, Michael Kiem and his family breed queen bees, posting them all over eastern Australia.
He feared the impact of complacency over varroa mites spreading.
"We're very concerned, it's our livelihood and if it [varroa] gets right across the country, it's going to change beekeeping," Mr Kiem said.
In the past five years, backyard beekeeping has quadrupled in Queensland.
Of the more than 9,000 beekeepers and over 160,000 hives registered, fewer than 400 were commercial apiarists.
Eradication still the aim
Ms Martin estimated at least half of Queensland's commercial beekeepers would leave the industry if the mite became endemic.
"That will put all of our industry partners, our pollination partners in crisis mode," Ms Martin said.
"We don't want to live with varroa, it will be catastrophic to the Australian honeybee sector."
Ms Martin suspected that reporting fatigue developed during the COVID pandemic was also affecting varroa reporting rates.
"We're not seeing the connect; people are undertaking their surveillance but not actually reporting that data into the system," she said.
He said surveillance using alcohol washes, drone uncapping and sugar shakes needed to be repeated and reported every sixteen weeks.
"A simple and easy way to identify that on your calendar at home is April, August and December, they're the mite check months you need to remember," Ms Martin said.
In NSW, miticide strips and sticky mats are also being used to detect varroa mites.
Mr Fuller apologised for refusing to answer the question of whether he believed varroa mite could be eradicated.
"It only takes one mite, that's a big ask," he said.
"We've over a million hectares now that is in red zones."
