EPA investigates poisoning of 250,000 bees in Corowa

About 250,000 bees have perished in the southern New South Wales town of Corowa after coming in contact with a controversial pesticide.

The bees were found dead in three hives in separate parts of the town last month.

NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) testing found the bees were poisoned by fipronil, a chemical used to control ants, cockroaches, fleas and other insects.

Alex McGillvray said he was devastated to find that his bees had been "wiped out".

"There's quite a few hobby beekeepers in town — all of their hives died, basically overnight," he said.

"There was just inches of dead bees in front of the hives and in the hives themselves, and the bees were obviously dying in agony.

"Something had been sprayed somewhere or they got access to a pesticide that killed them fairly quickly."

This is the fourth year his bees have died in March and he suspects someone in the area is using fipronil annually.

A vast number of dead bees on the ground. — Some beekeepers would like to see fipronil banned in Australia. (Supplied: Ian Carter)

Source unknown

The EPA does not know where the bees came in contact with the chemical and executive director of operations Jason Gordon said the investigation was challenging because bees flew long distances to collect pollen.

"Bees have quite a large flight diameter, so it's actually hard to track where the bees might have been," he said.

"We are working with the beekeepers to try to work out their flight paths to try to get a closer location to where the pesticide might have been used."

Since the start of 2023 the EPA has received 70 reports of birds and bees dying in similar circumstances.

The broad-use pesticide kills insects by disrupting their nervous systems and is banned in the United States and Europe but legal in Australia.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has been reviewing fipronil use for more than a decade.

Mr McGillvray was not surprised by the test results.

"It seems to be the chemical that is often implicated in bee deaths," he said.

He has echoed calls from other beekeepers for the pesticide to be banned in Australia.

"It's not very nice to us humans either, but it certainly is highly toxic to the pollinators," Mr McGillvray said

"We need the pollinators, otherwise you're not going to get food crops."

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