We need bees. Simple tiny little bees. When it comes to pollinators, keeping our planet’s food supply flourishing, turns out bees are the best tech available. In fact, the bee’s knees.
When it comes to pollinating our food crops, AI can’t save us. We need Bee-I. Small-winged tech. And it creates honey. Insanely sweet, antibiotic, preserving, immune- boosting honey. That’s crazy bee magic. Only nature could create something so insanely perfect and beautiful. Bees had drones way before we did.
Most of the crops we eat are pollinated by bees. Nearly two thirds of our agricultural production benefits from bee pollination. One out of every three mouthfuls of food depends on bees. One, two, Bee. When you count it like that it really brings it home. Bees are critical to our food security. Farmers need bees. Flowers need bees. We need bees.
And bees, well, bees need what most species need: not being sprayed with chemicals like herbicides and insecticides and not having habitat destroyed. Clear fell logging and urban encroachment hurts honey bees too. In fact many of the chemicals used in agriculture to increase yield, are toxic to bees. So that which is used to protect and enhance, in the end, taketh away.
Right now our honey bees are in trouble. They are facing their most evil adversary: varroa destructor. The Trump mite. We thought we’d kept it out, but it got in. And sadly, yet predictably, it’s resistant to pyrethroid and amitraz. Eradication was deemed unachievable in late 2023, and since then bee keepers have been faced with the task of mandatory reporting mite infestations, and monitoring.
The varroa mite has been carried by us. They originally co-evolved as non-lethal parasites of Asian honeybees but when we introduced the European honeybee to Asia, the parasite jumped species and as a naive species, it lacked the defences or grooming behaviours to inhibit numbers and infestation. Then we transport colonies, queens and beekeeping equipment internationally, which gave the mite a free ride onto other shores. Including ours.
Varroa mite is our version of neoliberal capitalism. Spread by us, infestation causes colony collapse through a ‘mite snowball effect’. The mite feeds on the fat bodies of bees, puncturing the protective shell and feeding on the bee’s juicy body. This drains the bee’s vital nutrients, leaves open wounds and makes the bee prone to bacterial and fungal infections. Exactly like neoliberal capitalism.
There are few wild swarms of honey bees living in the bush. This was where, for the bee community, a lot of biodiversity came from. When I was a kid, I remember the many times I was stung by those very swarms. Recently my friend discovered a swarm in his roof, above his bed. It was there for about two years. He learnt to sleep in the buzz of the hive.
We desperately need our pollinators. Tony Childs dedicated her musical career to our precious pollinators. Beekeepers are essential workers! Costa Georgiadis our much-loved garden guru says we need to eliminate pesticides, protect the environment and build habitat. The chemicals used to control varroa mite can impact beneficial insects and native pollinators. We need insect Airbee’n’bee – bee hotels!
Bee aware. Bee afraid. And understand that without bees, we all suffer. We aren’t just humans. We are human bee-ings.
Mandy Nolan’s column has appeared in The Echo for almost 25 years. She is a writer, comedian and artist, is the preselected Greens candidate for Ballina and was the Greens candidate at the past two federal elections.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
