Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Australia: Last Hope for the Bees

All of the world's wild honeybees have vanished on every single continent in the world - except Australia. This means that the only honey bees left in the entire world are those produced by the commercial bee industry, and those that are still wild in Australia.
One of the contributing reasons to the death of the world's honeybees is the Varroa Destructor mite which has spread to every continent in the world. Aside from Colony Collapse Disorder, this mite has single handedly wiped out the wild bees. The United States crops have only been able to survive due to the importation of honey bees from Australia.
Winter is now coming to America and Europe and winter is very bad for the bees, every country will again suffer bee loss, and again turn to Australia for supply.
Being an island, Australia has been spared the mite so far, but unfortunately is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts ever and, if it continues, the environmental stress will impact on Australia's ability to maintain large enough bee stock to export. Australia will therefore struggle to maintain it's bee-supply, and the world's dependence on bees will again increase after the winter.
To make matters worse, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, both very close neighbours of Australia, report that the Mite has arrived on their shores,
If and when the varroa mite arrives in Australia, bee exportation will cease. Australia would no longer be able to afford to lose any more of the bees that pollinate its own food supply. If the mites make it here, the rest of the world loses its food supply first - virtually immediately, but definitely within the space of a few years. One possible impact would be that almost half the food supply of the US could be gone within one winter.

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