September 2025 update
Since its detection near Newcastle, New South Wales in 2022, Varroa destructor has extended its geographic range in spite of strong quarantine and movement restrictions on hives. At the beginning of September 2025, the mite was detected in an almond plantation in the Riverland area of South Australia. The infested hive was part of a batch used for pollination, bought from an area of Queensland that did not have any known
infested colonies.
The annual almond pollination in Australia occurs mid-July to early September. The discovery of the infested hive early in September will not affect this year’s almond crop, estimated to be about 155,500 tons, valued at US$845 million, of which $488 million is exported. The annual almond pollination requires up to 300,000 hives, brought from across eastern Australia. Movement restrictions of hives from areas with known infestations meant that almond growers had difficulty obtaining this number of hives. A request was made to beekeepers in West Australia for 2,000 hives, although if West Australia were to provide 2,000 hives, due to strict quarantine controls, they would be unable to return to West Australia. West Australia and eastern Australia are, in effect, two isolated regions. Between them lies 1,250 miles of arid desert, The Great Victoria Desert, the largest in Australia. West Australia has a strict quarantine ban on hives from eastern Australia since European foulbrood is endemic in eastern Australia, but is not present in West Australia.
Honey bee-pollinated crops in Australia are worth US$3 billion. The end of the almond pollination season signals the start of the pollination season for other crops, many of which require large numbers of hives to be brought from across eastern Australia. With varroa now present in isolated areas of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Australian Capital Territories, and now South Australia, effectively scattered across all of eastern Australia, 2026 is expected to see the mite increase its geographic coverage, and become endemic in most, if not all, agricultural regions in eastern Australia.
