If you haven’t already, read that article on page 43 about those Asian bees in Australia. The article is by Doug Somerville. If the name sounds familiar it is because he’s the author of the Fat Bees/Skinny Bees book that set the standard for honey bee nutrition. He’s no slouch when it comes to honey bee biology, and he has some concerns. Go ahead and read the article. I’ll wait.

When it was first suggested bees from Australia be allowed into the U.S. there was a lot of fuss and bother…some of it mine…about letting them in. The inspections weren’t as careful as we would like, it was said, and what unknown diseases could get in, we asked. But so far nothing’s happened and those fears appear groundless. So now we import both honey and pollination…food production has been outsourced even more.

But a couple of years ago a cute little Apis cerana colony stowed away on a boat and got into northern Australia from a nearby island, again, and started expanding. It swarmed and it swarmed and the swarms swarmed. Diligent efforts have so far not been able to eliminate all those swarms and all the swarms from the swarms, and those who are looking just keep finding new nests, further and further away from the initial colony (see the article on this in the June, 2009 issue).

After a year of this USDA APHIS finally had to pay attention to the problem because of all the package business Australia was doing up here. And there was that pesky ruling in the trade agreement that said there couldn’t be any other bees in Australia if they wanted to ship bees to the U.S. or something, so APHIS had to actually go look. It wasn’t the bees they were worried about though. Rather, the mites they thought might be coming in with the bees. So far, none have been found.

But because they couldn’t get rid of the bees APHIS simply changed the rules. These new bees were told to stay at least 200 miles from any Australian package producers. And the mites? Well, it seems that, though mostly on the giant honey bee Apis dorsata, tropilaelaps mites sometimes ride along on Apis cerana, along with their Varroa cousins, so those of us who kicked up a fuss back then weren’t completely wrong. And now there’s a new varroa mite on these same islands that these cerana colonies came from that is as nasty as the old Varroa mite we know and love…so getting mites we don’t want, two new mites we don’t want in fact is a very real possibility from those bees, now from Australia.

But mites aside, the article this time adds a whole new layer of bad news. In head to head competition these little beasties actually out-compete our bees in the foraging and swarming departments. They have a temper you don’t want in your bee yard or anywhere else near where you are, and they don’t produce enough honey to bother with. When it comes to us or them…they blow European bees out of the water. No contest. And they aren’t even as big as our bees…go figure.

What is most telling is that beekeepers in Australia don’t want this bee in Australia for all these same reasons. These bees are just plain no good.

But they’re so much smaller, you say. You can tell them apart…look at the photo…easy enough, right? When they’re side by side, sure, it’s no problem. But who is doing that not-so-thorough inspection down under, just before they get on the plane? Remember, they do virus inspections visually, according to the rules, and we can’t inspect them there because it wouldn’t be friendly. It’d be saying we don’t trust their inspections. It wouldn’t be nice.

What’s worse, we can’t inspect them before they get off the plane here because it hinders trade (which makes one wonder about the 'absolutely no foreign bees in Australia' when the rule first went up, that got changed to the '200 mile rule' by decree rather than science when it was evident the old rule was plainly, flagrantly being broken). So who’s to say some of those packages aren’t cerana, and not mellifera? The Australians, who are selling us packages; or APHIS, who changes the rules they can’t enforce?

I already know the argument here…of course U.S. beekeepers know the difference and would spot those bees immediately. They will be our last and best defense. And they’ll spot those little critters right after somebody dumps them in a hive. There’s an old saying about barn doors that keeps cropping up here, isn’t there.

Well don’t worry, be happy, it’s OK. Both Australia and APHIS tell us there’s at least a 200 mile barrier, way more than 200 miles in fact, between where those bees are in Australia and any package producers in Australia, so there’s nothing to worry about, nothing at all. Except, after two years, they still haven’t found all those nests in Australia. If you don’t know where they are, how do you know they’re at least 200 miles away? Or only two miles away? How do you know the little darlings didn’t hitch a ride on a truck (or another boat) and move somewhere far, far away from those diligent searchers? Really, how do you know? Am I missing something here? Am I over reacting to this?

You can be fairly certain we’ll hear from the Australians, assuring us that those bees have been (1)captured and are no longer a threat, or (2)really are, still, at least 200 miles from any package producer, and (3)they’d know the difference and would never ship any here, anyway; and, from APHIS, citing all the international trade agreements in place that forbid us from protecting our butts; and those who import and use these bees, because its legal, the bees are wonderful, and we should just mind our own business.

I know that some U.S. beekeepers simply love Australian bees…and some almond growers do too. But are we being careful enough? Thorough enough? Are we safe enough? Can we afford a new mite problem, or two, or more? Can we afford additional competition for limited forage? Aren’t African bees enough of a bad-bee image problem?

The folks in Australia haven’t given up trying to find every last colony of these bees. We can’t fault them there. And because there was only a single initial incursion, (even though there were a lot of swarms from that initial colony), the genetics of that limited population of bees is beginning to cause inbreeding effects. So, maybe that’ll solve the problem for the Australians. And us. This time.

Let’s really, really hope so.

Happy Thanksgiving.