By Kris Fricke
In the official training we provided we were told to tell beekeepers after an alcohol wash to securely bag the dead bees and dispose of them into the waste management system. The legal basis for this is presumably one or both of the following:
The Australian Honey Bee Industry Code of Practice §7.1 – A beekeeper must not allow a used hive, part of a used hive (including frames, combs, honey or beeswax) or an appliance containing honey to be exposed in a manner or under conditions likely to attract robber bees; including during transportation.1
The Livestock Disease Control Act of 19942 also has some related provisions:
§ 52 Exposure of bees to infected articles etc.
A person must not expose—
any hive infected with disease; or
any beeswax, fittings or other articles which are infected with disease or have been taken from or used in conjunction with any hive infected with disease— in any manner that will allow access by bees to the hive or articles unless the hive or articles have been disinfected.
A person must not expose or extract any honey which is infected with disease in any manner which will allow access to the honey by bees.
A person must not expose any pollen collected from bees, which is infected with disease, in any manner that will allow bees to access the pollen. A beekeeper must take all reasonable precautions to ensure that any honey, honeycomb, fittings or other article on or in which honey is deposited and which is in the person’s possession or under the person’s control does not remain exposed in such a manner or under such conditions that would provide bees with access to the honey.
The Livestock and Disease Control Act of 20173 provides additional legal requirements for beekeepers but doesn‘t touch on this question.
These are very good reasonable regulations everyone should adhere to in order to prevent the spread of disease. They are often paraphrased as ―do not leave any hive material exposed,‖ which is generally close enough, but an astute reader may note that dead bees soaked in alcohol are neither likely to attract robber bees, nor are they infected with disease.
Consider that 1200-2400 bees are born in a hive every day during the season, and therefore 1200-2400 bees are also dying every day. Compared to this normal background delivery of dead bees into the environment by every single active hive, the addition of 300 dead bees is not significant. Yes, it‘s one ~30g clump, which is similar to a dead mouse, which, incidentally, is also a naturally occurring thing of little impact.
A thin film of alcohol will evaporate in less than an hour, and alcohol is a naturally occurring substance that definitely does not have any long-lasting toxic consequences for the environment. Dumping out the remaining alcohol could kill the grass it‘s dumped on, but if dumped into bare dirt should have no discernable negative consequences.
And so, if, after doing an alcohol wash you make a small depression in the dirt with your heel, dispose of the dead bees into it, and cover it again, there would be no environmental or legal hazard.
Obviously, there‘s nothing wrong with collecting all your dead bees in a bag to throw in your trash at home, but on the ecological balance that does introduce non-biodegradable plastic into the waste system and the dead bees are also now taking up space in the waste system rather than quickly decomposing in the natural environment. Plus, you‘re driving around with a you-hope-not-leaking bag of multiple hives‘ worth of dead alcohol soaked bees in your car.
Every step that makes proper varroa management more tedious makes people less likely to perfectly conduct the ideal implementation of Best Management Practices in the ways that actually matter. I‘d rather a commercial beekeeper successfully check his 10 hives each in four apiaries than think to himself ―ah I‘m under the pump and don‘t want to have 40 hives worth of dead bees in a bag steaming in the cab with me all day, she‘ll be right.‖
1 Plant Health Australia (2025) Australian Honey Bee Industry Biosecurity Code of Practice (Version 2.1). Canberra: Plant Health Australia.
2 Livestock Disease Control Act 1994 (Vic). https:// www.legislation.vic.gov.au/in-force/acts/livestock-disease-control-act-1994
3 Livestock Disease Control Regulations 2017 (Vic). https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/in-force/statutory-rules/livestock-disease-control-regulations-2017