Washington County bee inspector reports mite problems after 116 hive inspections in 2024

Blaine Nay, the Washington County bee inspector, told the County Commission that he inspected 23 apiaries and a total of 116 honey bee colonies in 2024 and found both European and American foulbrood as well as colonies with high parasitic-mite counts.

Nay said Utah’s inspection law, adopted in 1992, requires counties to appoint inspectors to monitor honey bee health and that his work focuses on detecting contagious diseases and teaching beekeepers how to manage mites and other problems. He said state testing for disease is available to registered beekeepers at no cost and that inspectors aim to sample at least 10% of a keeper’s colonies when there is reason to suspect disease.

The nut graf: healthy honey bees are important to local agriculture and garden pollination, and county-level inspection and early detection reduce the risk of larger, more destructive outbreaks.

Nay told commissioners that European foulbrood, a bacterial disease treatable with antibiotics, was detected in some colonies. He said American foulbrood — which leaves long‑lived spores and cannot be cured by antibiotics — was also confirmed in at least one yard. In that yard he said four colonies tested positive and the beekeeper chose to destroy affected colonies; at one point 12 infected colonies and some contaminated equipment were double‑bagged and taken to a landfill after burning was not permitted.

Nay said the most serious ongoing problem he sees is parasitic mites and that beekeepers must be trained in treatment methods and monitoring. He described an in‑season metric he uses: he does not want to see mite levels above about 2 percent in his standard sampling (he illustrated this with an example equivalent to roughly six mites in a sample). He also described mitigation steps and equipment sterilization practices used to limit spread between yards.

Nay said the county service is provided by volunteers at no charge to beekeepers; state registration for beekeepers costs $10. He encouraged both registered and unregistered keepers to contact the inspector for advice.

Commissioners thanked Nay for the work and asked a few clarifying questions about the number of inspections and the practical honey yield of a healthy hive.

Ending: Commissioners took no formal action on the presentation; Nay’s information was received and entered into the meeting minutes.