From what I’ve read, European bees are important for crop pollination because many of the crops grown in Australia are not native. However, there is a Australian stingless bee that can do the same, but locations they can be used is limited and can’t produce enough honey to meet demand.

Also, the USDA may be banning (or has banned by now) the import of Australian bees to the US because an Asian bee that the US doesn’t want has been accidentally introduced to Australia. See, bees are traded between countries all the time; one reason being, certain bees will pollinate during different times of the year.

After reading several sources, it looks like the Asian bee is the big problem in Australia as they can carry a type of mite that are harmful for indigenous bees, they steal honey which can harm other bees, and they are poor pollinators. Plus, they multiply rapidly, are more aggressive and can sting people, unlike the Australian stingless…

So, anyway, unless you can tell from the type of hive, which I couldn’t find any info on, based on the pics, how are we to know what type of bees those are? If those are the Asian bees, then I guess there would be reason to kill them, but I doubt the lay person would know the difference…

They’re european bees. And this is Australia. They’re not good for the environment as they don’t pollinate a lot of the Australian plants. And they also drive out Australian native bees.

If they were in their natural environment no problem, but these bees are feral.

I’m not saying they couldn’t have been relocated, but seriously, dude.

Those honeycombs are beautiful. It’s a real shame!

By the way, our beehive in the avocado has been doing fine for the past 10 years – in spite of our misguided efforts to exterminate it. We do worry about the possibility of it being taken over by Africanized honeybees, but so far so good. And no one has been stung – in the past 10 years.

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