Yellow-legged hornets are an invasive species, and a danger to local honey and wild bees. Photo: Biosecurity NZ
Biosecurity official estimate it's costing about $1 million a month to try to get on top of an incursion of exotic yellow-legged hornets in Auckland.
Thirty-one queen hornets (Vespa velutina) have been found around the city's Glenfield and Birkdale areas since the first discovery in mid-October.
The Ministry for Primary Industries was trapping within 5km of the detections, putting more staff on the ground and engaging tracking technology from abroad.
Horticultural sectors were concerned about the impact the predatory hornet could have on New Zealand's honey bee populations.
MPI director-general Ray Smith told the primary production select committee Thursday during scrutiny week, teams were also visiting households in the area, dropping 100,000 leaflets and encouraging reporting of further sightings.
But choices would eventually need to be made about how the response would be funded, he said.
"We've probably spent around about $1m already on this response, and we have to be conscious of following the science in order to kind of spend that money wisely as we go forward," he said.
"As each month ticks by, if you're adding on roughly $1m a month in response costs with a lot of people on the ground, it starts to become very expensive."
It established a technical advisory group featuring independent scientific experts from countries that had successfully managed incursions of the hornet to support its response.
Smith said industry partners were assisting with education and awareness around the hornets, but beekeepers and honey producers were not signed up to any government-industry agreement (GIA) that would involve financial contribution to the response.
Thirty-one queen hornets had been found around the city's Glenfield and Birkdale areas since the first discovery in mid-October. Photo: Supplied
"The people that are most concerned about the impact of the hornet is on bee populations," he said.
"That group does not have a government industry agreement, that means they have no obligation to contribute to the cost of this.
"It doesn't mean that they're not helping, but the costs are substantive, so it's all taxpayers' funds largely that are going into this."
MPI held a number of government-industry agreements with various sector groups regarding responses to biosecurity incursions.
Neither Apiculture New Zealand nor NZ Beekeeping Incorporated were involved, but ApiNZ chief executive Karin Koss said she was an "observer" to the technical advisory group.
Hornets were mid-hatching, so numbers may fluctuate, Smith said.
"But if we get into months and months and months and no sense of being able to control for it, and the millions begin to mount, there'll be another set of decisions for ministers to make about, 'well, who's paying for this?'"
NZ Beekeeping Incorporated was calling for greater protection measures beyond the 5km radius and a greater pace of decision-making from the ministry.
The group representing 350 commercial beekeepers paid a biosecurity incursion levy for American Foul Brood.
President Jane Lorimer said she feared open dialogue between the shrinking sector and the ministry could be stifled under a government-industry agreement.
"We would be paying probably a fairly substantial amount per beekeeper that we just currently can't afford."
Honey producers faced challenges at present, like a global honey glut during the Covid-19 era resulting in low prices and subdued demand, as well as pests like the destructive varroa mite.
Lorimer said beekeepers feared the hornets may spread beyond the 5km radius, which could significantly impact honey bee populations.
"We've been trying to say to MPI, can we actually look at doing something that's outside of GIA, but still meets the needs and that for biosecurity preparedness and response.
"Basically, they've been pretty much going, 'well no, there's only GIA available."
MPI received more than 4500 reports regarding hornets from the public.
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