Tiny Mite Seen as Big Problem for Bees

A small insect that kills bees is spreading in the United States and may threaten hundreds of millions of dollars worth of California crops that depend on pollination, a Senate committee has been warned.

The acarine mite, which gets its name from a Greek word for “tiny,” was first found in Texas last July and since has spread to eight other states, Ise A. Siddiqui, assistant food and agriculture director, told the committee.

Although California clamped controls in October on importation of bees from infested states, Siddiqui said, there is no assurance that the mite can be kept out.

“Because of the mobile nature of this (bee) industry, I think the chances are pretty good we’ll end up with it,” he said in testimony recently before the Senate Agriculture and Water Committee.

The only known control for the mite is to exterminate every bee colony where it is found, Siddiqui added.

Although California produced about $16.3 million worth of honey last year, the honey crop is not the issue.

A variety of California fruit and vegetable crops from almonds to zucchini depend on pollination from bees. The Department of Food and Agriculture estimates that crops worth up to $381 million will be endangered if the acarine mite gets a foothold in the state.

Beekeeping is a mobile, nationwide industry. Beekeepers shift their hives from state to state, renting them out to growers in need of pollination.

“I see this as being as dangerous as the Medfly was,” said Sen. Rose Ann Vuich (D-Dinuba).

The mite now is found in Texas, Louisiana, South Dakota, Florida, New York, Nebraska, North Dakota, North Carolina and Ohio.

Siddiqui said California first imposed an embargo on bee imports from any state where the mite was found. Later this was scaled down to infested counties, but bees from districts adjoining infested ones are permitted to enter only if certified as mite-free.

Importers of bees from other areas must submit sworn statements about their places of origin. All imports of bee colonies now are subject to border inspection.

The mite is less than a hundredth of an inch in diameter and attacks bees’ breathing apparatus. Beekeepers get the first warning of it when their bees lose the ability to fly.

Gene Buxton of the Department of Food and Agriculture’s detection and eradication unit said there is no known chemical that kills acarine mites while letting bees survive. “The state of the art isn’t such that we have positive control of it,” he said.