LIHU‘E — Kaua‘i is one of the last places on the planet to remain free of the varroa mite — a parasite which attaches to honey bees and feeds on their blood, eventually causing population demise, said Jimmy Trujillo of the Kaua‘i Beekeeper’s Association.
It is not a matter of if, “it’s a matter of when,” the mite will arrive, he told a crowd of nearly 15 people on Thursday evening at the group’s meeting in the Technology Building at Kaua‘i Community College.
The mites, which look like a red pimple, have already invaded other islands like O‘ahu where some 90 percent of fruit trees are no longer in production due to the lack of pollinators, said KBee’s Erik Coopersmith.
“All it takes is one mite,” said the Department of Agriculture’s Craig Kaneshige, who also attended the brainstorming session.
An effort to keep the varroa mite at bay has so far been successful, but the process often involves taking the lives of healthy bees, Trujillo said.
Swarm traps, which contain a pheromone, or scent, that attracts scout bees, have been set up around the airports and harbors of the island where bees that have hitched a ride on a boat or plane can be captured and eventually exterminated, Coopersmith said.
But to destroy all the feral bees in these locations “doesn’t make sense,” Trujillo said. “Why kill the dogs to get ride of the fleas?”
Bees are swarming right now which is a “beautiful thing … except they’re getting into traps and we’re having to kill them,” Coopersmith said.
Since bees are rapidly disappearing around the world, including the U.S. where 90 percent of the wild bees are “gone,” it is imperative to save as many lives as possible because if there are no bees, there is no food, Coopersmith said.
Honey bees are responsible for pollinating more than 90 percent of the “tastiest flowering crops we have,” including avocados, cucumbers, soybeans, blueberries, apples and strawberries, according to a 2007 Associated Press article entitled “Declining honeybees a ‘threat’ to food supply.”
Besides the varroa mite contributing to the honey bee’s demise, several factors are linked to “colony collapse disorder,” where bees are mysteriously disappearing from their hives across the globe, Trujillo said. Pesticides, monocrops, electromagnetic radiation and transferring the insects from one environment to another are all potentially creating unnecessary stress which is causing them to “lose their vitality.”
In some parts of the world farmers have to self-pollinate their crops by hand, as the disappearance of bees has become so detrimental, Coopersmith said.
“A cocktail of maladies exists,” Trujillo said.
The good news is Kaua‘i has the “healthiest bees in the world,” he said. So if there is any “room for adjustment” in allowing them to be tested for the mite rather than simply eradicated, it could help preserve the island’s pollinator population.
Perhaps placing the bees in a “containment yard” while undergoing tests would be a possibility, Coopersmith said.
Nevertheless, hopefully there will be a “safe way” to keep the mite out of the island while keeping the current bee population in equilibrium, he said.
Visit kauaibuzz.blogspot.com or call Trujillo at 346-7725 or Coopersmith at 335-0710 for more information.
See an upcoming edition of The Garden Island for continued coverage of the honey bee’s plight on Kaua‘i.
