About one in three food items depends on bee pollination. South Australia has confirmed varroa mite near Pooginook in the Riverland. Here’s what it means for your garden, shopping cart, and the farmers who feed us.
On September 2, 2025, surveillance teams discovered varroa mite in a beehive at Pooginook in the Riverland. The affected hive was part of a consignment from Queensland brought in to pollinate almond orchards during their critical flowering period.
“The detection was made during routine surveillance activities which have been in place since varroa’s first detection in New South Wales in 2022,” PIRSA confirmed in a statement released September 3rd.
This tiny reddish-brown parasite, barely visible to the naked eye, feeds on honeybees and can kill entire colonies if left untreated. Since first appearing in Newcastle in 2022, varroa has spread to Victoria, Queensland, and ACT — with South Australia becoming the fifth jurisdiction to detect the pest. When varroa was first detected in Australia, it triggered what became the largest plant pest response in Australia’s history, with 47,000 colonies euthanized during a 15-month eradication effort that cost approximately $150 million before transitioning to management in September 2023.
“June 2022 is a date etched in my brain forever,” says Danny Le Feuvre, CEO of the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council.
Photo source: Gilles San Martin (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Why Your Food Supply Depends on Healthy Bees
More than 65% of horticultural and agricultural crops in Australia rely on honey bee pollination for most of their production. Almonds, which form an important part of the Riverland’s agricultural economy, depend almost entirely on bees for nut production.
“We are 100% relying on European honeybees,” says Tim Jackson, CEO of the Almond Board of Australia. “There’s going to be a few other industries coming to the confessional all too soon, realizing that they too are 100% reliant.”
The potential impact is significant. Where varroa has established in other countries, it has killed 95-100% of feral (wild) honeybee colonies within 3-4 years. For Australian farmers, this poses a serious challenge. Australia faces unique challenges with varroa compared to other countries, as it has exceptionally high feral honeybee densities ranging from 50 to 150 hives per square kilometer, significantly higher than New Zealand’s 20 hives per square kilometer when varroa arrived there.
“This reinvasion of the colonies makes it very difficult for commercial beekeepers or any beekeeper to manage varroa in those hives,” explains Le Feuvre.
As per ABC, Riverland beekeeper Ian Cass notes the economic pressure ahead: “If you use the treatments we’ve been told to use, it’s going to cost between $60 and $70 per hive, per year—that’s just for the chemicals.” He adds that wild European honeybees, which play a crucial role in free crop pollination, could decline by up to 95%.
Le Feuvre, stresses that Australia faces unique challenges: “The varroa mite that we found in Australia is absent of some of the key viruses that we know really impact beekeepers around the world. Most notable of which is deformed wing virus.” However, he cautions that other factors may worsen the impact, including “small hive beetle populations exploding along the coast particularly along the coast of New South Wales where vera is established.”
Swift Response to Slow the Spread
PIRSA has implemented immediate controls at the detection site. Sticky mats and acaricides (mite-killing treatments) are being deployed across all hives within the affected orchard, and a movement control order prevents bees, hives, and equipment from leaving.
Any beekeepers who have had hives within 25km of Pooginook since July 25, 2025, are asked to contact PIRSA immediately. The department has been preparing for this moment, with Varroa Development Officers conducting 664 engagements involving 1,311 beekeepers across the state.
Since the national approach shifted from eradication to management in 2023, South Australia has implemented strict biosecurity measures for hives entering from varroa-positive states, including detailed movement history checks and surveillance protocols. The transition to management program includes delivering over 110 workshops nationwide and deploying 32 extension officers across all jurisdictions to provide practical demonstrations on varroa management techniques, with an extended 24-month support period that began in February 2025.
“Our policy at AHBIC is to slow the spread, not prevent the spread,” states Le Feuvre. “The majority of our beekeepers need to be able to move across borders to be able to survive financially.”
Test Your Knowledge About Varroa Mites
What This Means for Your Garden and Kitchen
For everyday South Australians, the immediate impacts may not be obvious, but the long-term effects could reach your kitchen table. As wild bee populations potentially decline, pollination-dependent crops may face challenges that could affect both availability and price.
Vogel points out: "If we're looking at what else can we do to think how could the situation may evolve...even if we're looking just about 20 years back into New Zealand, even there we have seen the number of beekeepers but also the number of hives declining in that decade after."
The Australian Honey Bee Industry Council described the detection as "a blow for SA beekeepers who have been enduring the worst drought and lowest honey production for many in living memory." However, they noted that "experience from eastern states suggests that the spread is slow and it is not expected to impact beekeepers this season in SA."
For home gardeners with fruit trees or vegetable patches, a decline in wild bees might mean fewer pollinators visiting your backyard. This could potentially reduce yields of everything from backyard apple trees to pumpkin vines. Early observations from New South Wales show that feral honeybees are already disappearing from areas like Sydney, where the University of Sydney has documented the complete disappearance of previously mapped feral colonies around their campus.
"Do they all just need to be grass or could we do something in our home backyards to make the bees a little bit more happy?" suggests Vogel, encouraging gardeners to consider bee-friendly plantings.
"We're getting a lot of reports of the feral honeybees disappearing from the landscape," confirms Le Feuvre. "Beekeepers that have kept bees in those areas all their life are reporting the absence of feral honeybees."
What You Can Do Now
If you're a beekeeper, PIRSA asks that you:
- Register your hives to receive updates and biosecurity notices
- Inspect hives regularly using alcohol wash, sugar shake, or sticky mat detection methods
- Report any suspected varroa detections immediately to 1800 084 881
- Support local beekeepers as they navigate this new challenge
- Consider planting bee-friendly flowers in your garden to support remaining pollinator populations
- Be aware that native Australian bees are not hosts for Varroa destructor and may become increasingly important for pollination
- Well-designed bee hotels are favorable for Australian native bees as they provide vital nesting sites, especially where natural habitats are scarce due to urbanization.
For everyone else:
"To rely just on honeybees isn't a great deal for any horticultural industry," says Le Feuvre. "What we know is that the best outcomes around pollination is a good mix, a good mix of pollinators, not just one species, not just honeybees."
PIRSA's Varroa Development Officers are available to help beekeepers develop management skills, offering free education and support services. For more information, visit the PIRSA varroa mite information page at pir.sa.gov.au.
South Australia has detected varroa mite for the first time in a beehive at Pooginook in the Riverland. PIRSA is working with beekeepers to slow its spread while implementing management strategies. The parasite threatens honeybee populations with potential impacts on pollination-dependent agriculture.
Despite the challenges ahead, Le Feuvre remains optimistic: "Our beekeepers are resilient. They've been through many droughts, fires and floods and pandemics as well and survived and come out the other side. So our beekeepers all have a tough few years whilst Verar establishes in Australia. But then once we get through the initial establishment phase, the mines will be much easier to manage."
