Honey Production And Food Crops Threatened By Asian Honey Bees
The attack of Asian honey bee in Cairns, Australia is alarming according to one of the world’s experts on bees. He doesn’t know how much lost it would cost to the local bee industry.
This type of bees breed so fast and they are accused as threat to the nation’s honey production and as well as the nation’s food crops, according to one of Australia’s paper.
Asian honey bee destroys commercial hives by stealing honey and spreading disease which in effect starves the regular European bees. These European bees are very essential since it pollinates about $4 billion worth for agricultural crops annually.
When it was traced how this type of bees arrived in Cairns, it was learned that it has been from a ship from Papua New Guinea in 2007. It was contained 55km radius around Cairns.
Honey industry members have flocked in the Parliament House and these hundreds of members have demanded that Federal Government should reverse its decision not to finance the eradication of the Asian bees. They believe that if the Federal Government finances $10 million, in over two years, the species will be eradicated.
According to Greens Senator Christine Milne, the Asian honey bee has threatened not only the honey supply or the apiarists or the natural environment but it is the Australian agriculture itself. The agriculture depends on pollination that bees provide. But according to the Australian Agriculture Minister of the Lower House, the decision to stop the financing for the eradication of the Asian honey bee was through scientific research and not just a simple decision of the government. The national management group decisions was based on scientific factors which includes the rate of breeding of the bees, the tendency to swarm and its capacity to fly unusual long distance when they swarm. These made significant difficulties to find and destroy their nests. But it is not worth to a decision that there is no continuing engagement in some areas other than the eradication if control is meant.
