Bee Quarantine Ending, Called Unworkable

A month-old, 13-state federal quarantine to curb the spread of tiny bee mites is being canceled because it has proved to be unworkable, the Agriculture Department said Thursday.

The quarantine was designed to restrict permits for out-of-state movement of bees and equipment to only those found free of the mites.

The states affected at Florida, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.

James W. Glosser, administrator of the department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said the restrictions are being lifted, effective Friday, on the movement of bees and equipment from those states.

Although not known to be harmful to other creatures, the mites are considered a major threat to the nation’s honey and beekeeping industry.

The tiny killer mites, Varroa jacobsoni, were first discovered in the United States in September in a Wisconsin apiary.

The V. jacobsoni mite is an external parasite of adult bees and their developing larvae, or brood. It causes decreased brood, deformed bees and a weakening of the colony’s ability to pollinate plants and produce honey. Infestation can occur so gradually that the mites may not be noticed until severe damage is done.

“Information received from state governments, beekeepers, growers and researchers has caused us to conclude that the regulatory program established under the quarantine is not the appropriate mechanism to contain the interstate spread of Varroa mites,” Glosser said.

“We’ve found that the requirements under the quarantine are not uniformly appropriate or workable because the role of honeybees in the agricultural economy varies widely from state to state,” he said.

“Many beekeepers have found it impossible to comply with the regulations and still meet their own deadlines.”

For example, he said, a beehive might have to be moved out of its home state several times a year. Treating a hive against mites requires 21 days, which is longer than most beehives are scheduled to stay in a state when they are moved for pollination purposes.

Beekeeping is credited by USDA with the pollination of agricultural crops with an annual value of about $20 billion. Those include many fruits, vegetables and hay crops.

Glosser said other factors weighed in the decision to cancel the quarantines, including a shortage of treatment materials and limited state and federal resources to conduct and coordinate surveys and inspections.