Government won't pay to wipe out bee mite in South Island

The spreading varroa bee mite could cost South Island farmers $10 million a year. Picture / Michael Cunningham

The Government says it will not pay to eradicate varroa mite in bees in the South Island.

Biosecurity Minister Jim Anderton announced yesterday that management was the "realistic option".

"We think it best to focus efforts on managing this pest, given the costs of attempting to remove it from the Nelson area and the high probability it will re-infest the South Island in a relatively short period."

Assessments of the economic impact of varroa on South Island agriculture made in 2002 ranged from $365 million under a "best case" scenario to $514 million over the next 30 years.

About 90 per cent of the impact will fall on the pastoral industries, with significant effects on beekeeping, horticulture and arable industries.

On Monday, Biosecurity New Zealand announced the discovery of 24 more infested hives.

They were found at Pelorus Bridge, in the Rai Valley between Nelson and Picton, and were 57km by road northeast of Nelson, a long way outside the 10km zone drawn around the original finds around the Nelson suburb of Stoke.

In addition to the infestations found at 41 sites around Nelson, until last weekend the only "outlying" infected hives had been a further two found at Tapawera, 58km southwest of Nelson by road (or 30km as the bee flies).

Mite levels in the Pelorus Bridge hives indicated they were infested well before the discovery of varroa in Nelson in June, possibly when their owner extracted honey at a site closer to the city.

The owner of the hives only has one other apiary, near Wakefield, 29km southwest of Nelson, and it has tested negative.

The varroa mite attacks the pupae of the honeybee and ripped through the North Island after being found in south Auckland in April 2000.

Experts have estimated that its spread in the South Island could cost farming there $10 million a year over 30 years.

The losses would result from lack of free crop pollination and loss of pollination of clover which puts "free" nitrogen from the air into pastures.

- NZPA