Beekeepers in Canada face losses of up to 90 per cent amid spread of parasitic mites
The bee deaths also have greater impacts beyond the honey industry. Honeybees are crucial pollinators for hybrid-seed canola and blueberry growers.
By Tom Yun
CTVNews.ca writer
Apr 19, 2022
Excerpt:
As beekeepers in Canada prepare to open their hives for the spring, some are finding high mortality rates in their hives.
At some bee farms in Alberta, the province with the largest beekeeping industry, beekeepers are finding more than 50 per cent of their bees dead. The Manitoba Beekeeping Association is also reporting that some beekeepers are seeing losses of up to 90 per cent of their bees.
“The bees are in confinement from October-November until April,” Laval University bee scientist Pierre Giovenazzo told The Canadian Press earlier this month. “It’s tough for them. Overwintering mortality in Canada is often around 20 per cent to 30 per cent, normally. In good years, we might be at 18 per cent.”
The Alberta Beekeepers Commission says losses over winters have averaged 26.2 per cent since 2007. Beekeepers say the main culprit for bee deaths is the varroa mite, a parasitic mite that feeds on honeybees and has existed in Canada since 1989.
“It’s a very serious threat. It’s a parasite that it has been with beekeepers for many, many years. So, it’s not a new parasite,” Renata Borba, tech transfer lead at the Alberta Beekeepers Commission, told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday.
