As of July 2026, varroa has been detected in every mainland state on Australia's east coast and is continuing to spread inland and west. This is the third article in our Varroa Stories series. The response from beekeepers was too large for one article, so the series is four pieces: an overview hub, plus three grouped features. The first grouped article covered backyard beekeepers. This one covers six small-business, sideliner and community beekeepers, from a commercial operator who was on-site for Australia's first-ever varroa detection outside a DPI sentinel hive, to a sideliner who found her first mite four weeks ago.
Their answers, in their own words, published with their permission.
Rick, The Backyard Beekeeper, QLD: "I knew at that moment beekeeping would change forever"
Rick runs The Backyard Beekeeper out of South East Queensland, with 150 colonies of his own and up to 500 client hives across the region. He has been keeping bees for 10 years, running a mix of timber and Hive IQ Langstroths, plus Flow Hives, across multiple apiaries.
He does not need to tell you the date varroa arrived in Australia. He was there.
"24th June 2022, the day DPI discovered them in one of their sentinel hives. A day later I went out to nearby clients' hives near the Port of Newcastle as per DPI request and discovered varroa IP 2, the first location outside of DPI hives. We always knew it would happen one day but didn't expect it on our doorstep. When I saw them in three hives I'd done a sugar shake test on just six weeks earlier, I couldn't believe it. I knew at that moment beekeeping would change forever."
His Brisbane apiaries stayed clean until March 2026. When he did detect, he was ready. He had been managing client hives that had mites for over six months and knew what to do.
What he did not expect was the new incursion and what it brought with it. Rick is one of the few operators in this series to name what he is now dealing with:
"Bayvarol and Apivar worked great until the resistant strain of mite hit us. These do not work at all now."
Bayvarol and Apivar are two of the frontline synthetics Australian beekeepers have leaned on hardest since 2022, but there are now reports of a second varroa incursion of resistant mites. Rick's own hives are now on a 4-week (not monthly) treatment cycle. Oxalic strips and vaporisation hold mite numbers stable but do not reduce them if reinfestation from surrounding feral colonies is high. Formic Pro hits hard but often knocks the queen. Brood breaks and swarming, he notes, are actually a positive when you have varroa.
"At this point in time we are in crisis management, working and checking hives on a daily and weekly basis in all weather conditions. The 2026/2027 season we will be focused on trying to rebuild with whatever we have left, if we have any bees left."
His advice to anyone still hoping varroa is not near them yet:
"Waiting is the biggest mistake. Do not wait for thresholds that have been communicated, and don't assume varroa is not in your colonies when you know it's been detected nearby. Every day we get calls from beekeepers that didn't think varroa was near them yet and wonder why their bees have left and blame small hive beetle for taking over the hives."
Rick's one-line message to someone about to detect their first mite: "Treat. Immediately do something and don't wait."
Darryn, Bowral Bees, Southern Highlands NSW: "It's not as scary as I initially thought"
Darryn has been beekeeping since 2018. He runs 10 of his own hives plus manages around 50 more for individuals, community groups and farms across the Southern Highlands NSW. He teaches and mentors, and his commercial base is bowralbees.com.au (Instagram: @bowralbeez). His setup is mostly 8-frame Langstroth with some Flow hives.
He detected varroa in a client hive in April 2025, then in his home hives in early spring 2025.
"It was a shock. This tiny little pest that I had heard so much about was finally right there in an alcohol wash."
Darryn has since worked with more treatments than almost anyone else in this series: Formic Pro (good in his cool-climate spring, but he lost three queens across eight hives when temperature spiked one summer), oxalic acid dribble in winter, and, since December 2025, an oxalic acid sublimator for all his home-hive treatments. On client sites where he visits every 4 to 6 weeks, he leans on Bayvarol, Apiguard, Apivar and Aluen Cap.
"I prefer organic treatments but when mite counts are high and I am only visiting a site every four to six weeks, a treatment like Bayvarol was most practical, but now I'll use Aluen Cap oxalic acid strips now they're available and being an organic treatment."
His practical operational changes are worth noting for other beekeepers:
- He has marked all his queens to make alcohol washes easier and safer
- Sublimation treatments take four rounds over 20 to 25 days, so records have become critical
The most surprising thing, after 18 months of managing it, is not what most people expect:
"It's not as scary as I initially thought. With good systems and regular checks you can definitely keep on top of it and still have thriving colonies."
He echoes Rachael's heat-wave warning further down the article with a specific mistake to avoid:
"Using Formic Pro on a day when the temperature spiked above the forecast. I'll be much more wary of being close to the maximum temperature and monitor the temperature closely for the first three days."
His advice to a beekeeper about to detect their first mite: "It will change how you keep bees and you have to adapt to a new world, but it's not hard once you learn the systems that keep your bees healthy. Nail down the alcohol wash and test regularly."
Shayne Starkey, BeeObsessedHoney, Tuross Head NSW: "The constancy of it, no way I could slacken off at all"
Shayne runs BeeObsessedHoney and is the Biosecurity Officer for the Eurobodalla Amateur Beekeepers Club. She also manages a DPI Sentinel Hive. She has been keeping bees since 2018. She currently runs 5 hives (down from 12, "would be divorced" if she kept expanding), primarily in wooden 8-frame Langstroths, plus a 28-frame horizontal long hive her husband built for her at Bodalla, 15 minutes south of Tuross Head. "Bees thrive in this hive," she says.
She heard the varroa announcement on the way home from a holiday in June 2022, and a week later drove to Maitland to volunteer during the eradication phase, doing alcohol washes and euthanising colonies alongside DPI officers.
"That was an eye opener. Many neglected beehives, some with queens in honey supers, others overrun by small hive beetle. Both a learning curve and a reality check."
She detected varroa in her own hives in May 2025. Because she had already switched from the DPI-recommended sugar shake to alcohol washes at 6-weekly intervals, and had attended the DPI Varroa Management Workshop pre-arrival, the finding was almost welcome:
"It was a relief to find them finally. All the what-ifs became a reality and my training was put into action, which was invaluable."
Shayne runs the deepest Integrated Pest Management program of anyone in this series. Alcohol washes every 3 to 4 weeks, mid-treatment AND post-treatment. Green drone-trapping frames pulled from her strongest hive to service weaker ones. Double queen-confinement cages combined with drone frames and Api-Bioxal drizzle. Bayvarol only when re-infestation is running high. Laminated AHBIC treatment table on hand. Frames dated so she can rotate old comb out to reduce small hive beetle refuge. Written "brood food only" on any frame moved up during treatment so it never ends up in a honey harvest.
She is blunt about what does not work and what does:
"The only way to truly know what the mite load is in a colony is by regular alcohol wash surveillance."
On Formic Pro (Spring 2024): the treatment worked but "the bees think their perfectly good queen with a great laying pattern has to be replaced because they can no longer detect her pheromones." She lost queens to supersedure.
She rates Aluen Cap cellulose oxalic acid strips as very effective, with one practical caveat worth planning for: the bees chew them up and discard them, so they have to be replaced partway through to complete the full six-week treatment period. She has also used Apivar successfully, in single brood box colonies with no honey supers on.
On the frontline synthetics:
"Bayvarol has been a very efficient and important synthetic treatment which has saved the hive in Bodalla when it has had very high mites due to high reinfestation rate. It will be devastating to lose that product through resistance."
That risk is not hypothetical, and Shayne is precise about where it sits: Apivar and Bayvarol are the two synthetics where resistance has been detected. Rick's crisis section above describes exactly that, already playing out in South East Queensland.
Her hardest adjustment is emotional:
"The constancy of it. No way I could slacken off at all. Consequences of colony loss are high. With a high re-infestation rate in the first year, I'm lucky if I get four to six weeks break before hives are over thresholds again."
Her closing advice to someone about to detect their first mite:
"Don't panic. Just do your best, do your alcohol washes regularly and act on them as soon as you reach thresholds. Rotate your treatments and don't discount the synthetic treatments, the big guns can save your hive, especially if you get high mite counts, which are inevitable in the first phase. Things settle down over time as unmanaged and feral colonies die out. With experience and knowledge you will adapt and the bees will get used to seeing you more often and being treated. Don't lose heart. Without you, the bees are in jeopardy and we need them."
Rachael, Wood Wood, VIC: "I was more of a pest controller than a honey producer"
Rachael runs Wood Wood Honey, a sideline commercial operation based on the Murray River, 35 km from Swan Hill in Northern Victoria. She grew up around bees (her father kept them) and has been running her own hives for about a decade. She currently manages 20 hives across several sites: mallee scrub, redgum country on the river, and a couple of backyard sites for mixed blossoms. She wants to grow.
She had been reading about varroa for years in beekeeping magazines and had been monitoring for about a year before her first detection. Early cases in the surrounding almond orchards had kept her alert. Her first mites came up in a routine alcohol wash at the start of this season.
"Since then it has been a total bombardment of mites!"
Her monitoring cadence now: every couple of months on clean sites, monthly on mite-positive sites. If anything looks off in a hive, a mite check is her first response before further investigation. She runs at least one hive per site on a vented base with a drawer so she can check mite drops between washes.
She has used Aluen Cap oxalic acid strips, Bayvarol and Apivar. All work. She has landed on a rough protocol:
"I've found the highest-count hives recover well when treated with the synthetic (Bayvarol or Apivar) first, then oxalic acid strips as a follow-up. I'm new to it and expect my approach will change."
Her single biggest surprise, and her clearest warning to other beekeepers:
"Keep an eye on mite numbers after heat waves. I had a very low count prior to a week of 45-degree days. Then about seven to ten days later, numbers had more than tripled. I lost two of those hives early this month. I'd say they never fully recovered from the huge infestation."
Her biggest ongoing challenge is not treatment. It is the wider environment:
"Feral bee populations are the biggest challenge. Until they disappear, mite loads remain high."
Her one-line advice to someone about to detect their first mite: "Act fast when you get your first mite count."
Her summary of the season, in one line every commercial beekeeper will recognise:
"This season I was more of a pest controller than a honey producer!"
Simon Beswick, Bezo Beez, Coogee NSW: "She'll be right, mate. Won't cut it in 2026"
Simon runs Bezo Beez out of Coogee in eastern Sydney. He has been beekeeping for nine years. He was up to 15 hives at his peak, spread across several sites and sold through Sydney markets. Today he is back to 2 hives in his suburban backyard, all Langstroth. The reason is one word.
He first heard about varroa in 2022 when the Newcastle outbreak was announced. Like most beekeepers at the time, he hoped it would be contained. It was not. He detected mites in his own hives in 2024, via alcohol wash.
"Extremely worried. Unfortunately my worst fears became a reality and I lost the majority of my hives."
His scale-down story is worth reading in full because it is one of the clearest cause-and-effect stories in this whole series. He was managing early last spring. Then he went away for three weeks in October.
"I was trying to manage them as much as possible early last spring but I went away in October and came back three weeks later to the loss of most of my hives. It was a slurry out. I was devastated. Since then early detection has really saved me, making sure that you're doing the right treatment for the bees and getting to know as many people in the area to make sure that they are treating as well. Going through the loss of so many hives made me feel for all those people who lost their bee businesses and livelihood because of varroa mite."
Simon now monitors monthly (fortnightly when counts are high) with the sugar shake method. His treatments have cycled through Bayvarol strips, and he is currently running oxalic acid strips plus oxalic acid vapour. He treats the aggression change as an early warning:
"Colonies with significant varroa infestation become more aggressive. Once mite load is reduced, they usually become much easier to manage again."
His hardest lesson has been about the community, not the treatments. He has tried to introduce new beekeepers to the hobby but says many have not continued, partly because of the increased commitment and the timing of entering beekeeping in the varroa era:
"You're doing everything correctly, but other beekeepers in the area aren't managing varroa properly, because their decisions ultimately affect your own hives."
His mistake-to-warn is the shortest and bluntest in the series:
"She'll be right, mate. Won't cut it in 2026."
His advice to someone about to detect their first mite is even shorter: "Kill them! It is likely going to happen so be prepared. Early detection is key, allowing you to treat correctly." Simon has also offered, in his own words, to help any Sydney beekeeper in person.
Bec, Clunes, VIC: "It's what you do that will determine if you have bees after varroa"
Bec runs 10 hives as a sideliner near Clunes in Central Victoria. She started in her suburban backyard about seven years ago and moved her apiary out to a rural property as it grew. She had been aware of varroa since she began beekeeping, and had already purchased Aluen Cap in preparation.
Her first mite showed up on 27 June 2026, four weeks before this article was drafted. She is one of the freshest detection stories in the series.
"Even though I'd attended varroa seminars, nothing really prepared me for that first moment. I was shocked, disappointed, but I didn't panic as I knew it would only be a matter of time. Because of the timing and the onset of winter, I thought it was as good a time as any to have discovered it, as there was very little brood present."
She is currently mid-treatment. Aluen Cap strips went in immediately and come out on 8 August (day 42). She checks sticky mats weekly and has seen dead mites, so the treatment is working. She has also lost one weaker hive, though whether from the varroa, the treatment, or natural winter attrition she cannot be sure.
Her most practical warning to fellow beekeepers is quotable:
"Make sure you know where your queen is at all times, and NOT in your alcohol wash."
And:
"If one beehive has varroa, it's best to assume that all your hives in the same apiary will have varroa also."
Bec is honest about the emotional cost of managing an introduced pest against her own preference:
"Varroa has made me sad about beekeeping and saving the bees, as I know how much we rely on them for pollination and food production. I would prefer not to treat my bees with any form of chemicals, but I know that this is not an option moving forward."
She has attended a queen-rearing course, hoping that raising her own queens (and replacing them each year) will help her hives defend themselves better against future mite pressure.
Her final message to the next Australian beekeeper who is about to detect their first mite:
"Understand that it will be everywhere one day and there's nothing you can do that will stop your bees from having it. But it's what you do that will determine if you have bees after varroa. Being a beekeeper in Australia at this very time is very critical to our food security and agricultural industry. Without bees everyone will suffer."
What the six of them have in common
Different operations, different states, six different starting points. But the same short list of themes:
- The alcohol wash is non-negotiable. All six come back to the alcohol wash, including Rick who has managed varroa longer than anyone else in Australia. Rachael, Darryn, Shayne, Simon and Bec test every 3 to 4 weeks on positive sites. Rick has moved from monthly to fortnightly.
- Feral (and unmanaged) hives are the enemy. Rachael, Rick and Geoff (from Article 2) all name unmanaged feral colonies as the primary reinfestation driver. Simon adds a second layer: your neighbour's untreated managed hives will hurt yours just as much.
- Don't discount the synthetics, but watch the resistance story. Bayvarol, Apivar and Apiguard have saved hives across most of these stories. Both Shayne and Rick name Apivar and Bayvarol as the two synthetics where resistance has now been detected, and Rick's South East Queensland experience is the industry story to watch.
- Aluen Cap needs mid-treatment attention. Shayne, Darryn, Rachael and Bec all use the oxalic acid strips, and Shayne's practical note applies to all of them: bees chew the cellulose strips up and discard them, so they need replacing partway through to see out the full six-week period.
- Watch the weather. Rachael and Darryn both flag heat-wave and temperature-spike events as separate risk categories: heat waves for reinfestation, temperature spikes for Formic Pro-linked queen loss.
- Don't go away for three weeks in October. Simon lost most of his hives in that window. When you have varroa in your area, absence is not neutral.
- Treat immediately, then plan. Every one of the six opened the same way in a fresh detection: treat first, ask questions second.
More Varroa Stories
- Article 1, Overview (Hub): Varroa in Australia: what 14 beekeepers have learned
- Article 2, Backyard beekeepers: Six Australian hobbyists share what they learned
- Article 4, Preparing for the front line: A Central QLD outback beekeeper and an SA first-detector
If you're just starting to manage varroa
- Our full range of varroa monitoring and treatment products
- The Australian Honey Bee Industry Council chemical treatment table
- Randy Oliver's Scientific Beekeeping, cited by Geoff in Article 2
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