The Varroa Destructor mite has arrived in South Australia. This mite has a very destructive effect on cultivated bees and also the bees in the wild. This is a very significant problem, because bees play a vital role in pollinating our crops and the loss of bees puts our food supply at risk.
The South Australia Microprocessor group has teamed up with a local apiarists, to see if modern technology can help. This is a group project and many members are involved. Whilst it would be impossible to eradicate the mite, we feel that there are many things which we may be able to achieve which would reduce the extra work load that managing the infestation creates. Areas in which we may be able to help include:-
- Using Artificial Intelligence to monitor the level of infestation
- Monitoring the amount of honey in the hive
- Monitoring the pollen payload
- Automatic treatment using vapours or strips
Typically, we envisage that all of the above (and other factors) would be monitored and operated remotely so that the apiarist would be continuously informed about the state of the hives. This would dramatically reduce the travel and time requirements for this work. Currently, the apiarist spends at leadst one day per week, just monitoring the hives.
It is early days for this project but we will be updating this page in a few weeks to let you know how we are getting on.