The work involves teams locating rainbow bee-eaters, who typically roost in large numbers at the same sites each night, between March and November each year.
The birds expel indigestible materials, such as bee wings, in pellets which are collected for analysis in a laboratory to help identify if the feral bee species, Asian honey bees, are active in the area.
Asian honey bees present a serious threat to native bees because they are major competitors for important resources such as nectar and pollen.
The effort is one tool in the armoury of the latest National Bee Pest Surveillance Program funded by Hort Innovation with Australian Honey Bee Industry Council and Grains Producers Australia, and led by Plant Health Australia.
Plant Health Australia’s Sharyn Taylor said teams would inspect thousands of pellets from rainbow bee-eaters over the next three years as part of the newly funded project.
“Rainbow bee-eaters are common to much of Australia and well known to beekeepers as a bee predator,” Dr Taylor said.
“However, ironically, they also play a vital role in protecting our local native bee populations, and they are excellent at finding bee populations, including exotic species.”
Surveillance officers have also deployed several automated catch boxes in remote locations that send an alert back to officers around Australia, whenever bees have entered the boxes.
This technology helps to detect new swarms of bees that arrive at ports from incoming vessels.
Hives of sentinel bees remain the backbone of the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program, placed at the ports of highest risk across Australia and inspected regularly for Varroa mite, the most important target for surveillance.
Almond Board of Australia’s Deidre Jaensch said access to healthy honey bees was critical for pollinating almond crops each year.
“This surveillance program is such an important first step in being able to defend ourselves against exotic pests and diseases,” she said.
“With increasing trends in global trade and travel, these exotics are continually threatening the livelihoods of not just almond and other horticulture producers but everyone growing crops that require cross pollination including home gardeners, beekeepers and honey producers.”