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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Sandra Godwin

‘It’s inevitable’: Australian beekeepers brace for national spread of varroa mite

Bees gather on the outside of a wooden hive
Thousands of bee hives are trucked to north-west Victoria each year for almond pollination. Photograph: Sandra Godwin

Two years after the exotic pest Varroa destructor was detected in sentinel hives at the Port of Newcastle and began spreading throughout New South Wales, beekeepers in other states are bracing for the pest’s inevitable arrival.

It is not only commercial beekeepers in the firing line. An estimated 47,000 registered recreational beekeepers will be forced to decide whether they can continue their hobby.

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