Mites have taken a toll on the honeybee population in the Cowichan Valley during the winter months.
Ian Low, president of the Cowichan Beekeepers Club, said the survival rate of honeybee hives in the Valley was approximately 25.5 per cent at the beginning of spring this year, while the usual survival rate is usually about 60 per cent.
He said there are various reasons as to why this is so, but it appears mites played a large role in the depletion of the honeybees, including 23 of his 34 hives during the winter.
Mites are a parasitic infestation and have spread across North America over the last decade or so impacting honeybee populations.
A mite will latch onto a bee and chew away at the bee’s liver and they can also bring other diseases with them, depleting the ability of bees to live long lives.
“It appears mites put a lot more stress on honeybees, especially in the winter,” Low said. “There are organic acid treatments to make it more difficult for mites to attach to the honeybees. I was using the treatments, but started too late this season.”
Low said a big part of dealing with the mite problem is education for bee keepers, as many of them purchase hives without knowing how important the treatments are to fend off mites.
He said it’s hard to get rid of the mites entirely as beekeeping is a big industry and many hives are imported to the Cowichan Valley and Vancouver Island, bringing mites with them.
”This is a big problem all around the world,” he said.
“It could potentially wipe out western honeybee populations in just one to two years without beekeepers working hard to deal with mites. That’s concerning because more than 70 per cent of of all our food comes from plants that are pollinated, so this could have big impacts on our food security.”
To help educate people about the importance of bees and the danger the mites present, Low said the Cowichan Beekeepers Club has created the “Bee-Mobile” which will soon be set up at schools and other areas during public events around the Cowichan Valley.
He said the club also meets the third Monday of every month at The Hub at Cowichan Station at 6:30 p.m., and the public is invited to come and learn more about bees in the region.
