MEDIA RELEASE FROM THE VARROA AGENCY

South Island Varroa Surveillance 2007

The Varroa bee mite’s presence in the South Island appears to be confined to the Nelson area.

Varroa, already widespread in the North Island, was discovered in South Island beehives in June 2006 in the Nelson area. A Controlled Area around the Nelson Marlborough districts has been in place since then in an effort to minimise its spread.

The Varroa Agency has recently completed its annual varroa surveillance programme in the South Island, concentrating on apiaries in large urban or tourist areas, apiaries close to main highways or near seaports and airports. The Agency has surveyed approximately 17000 hives each autumn for the last three years, its monitoring detecting the varroa outbreak in Nelson in 2006.

Additional testing was carried out for MAF this year to monitor if varroa had spread beyond the Nelson area boundaries. This was intended to give beekeepers an idea of the mite’s progression into the rest of the South Island, so they could prepare.

None of the 7229 South Island hives sampled outside the Controlled Area showed varroa.

However, two further varroa infested apiaries were found inside the Controlled Area by the Varroa Agency amongst the 5000 hives tested for MAF,. These findings were just south east of the original positive apiary at Pelorus Bridge, first detected in July 2006. Restricted Place Notices have been placed on these apiaries.

Varroa Agency chairman Duncan Butcher said this result suggested that the bee pest is currently confined to the Nelson Controlled Area, which will give the South Island beekeepers some time to consider their management options. “We’re grateful to the beekeepers who carried out the surveillance. Further varroa surveillance on a South Island wide basis is not likely to be continued,” he said.

MAF will be discussing these issues during another series of ‘Living with Varroa’ workshops scheduled for August 2007. Two day workshops for commercial beekeepers will be held in Christchurch, Timaru, Alexandra and Gore beginning July 30th with concurrent evening workshops for hobby beekeepers in Christchurch, Timaru, Dunedin, Alexandra and Gore.

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