Journal · News · by Laszlo Kun
We’re in the Berwick-Pakenham Gazette
A two-page feature on the free Varroa monitoring tool we built for beekeepers — and why knowing whether your treatment worked matters more than ever.
This week the Berwick-Pakenham Gazette ran a two-page feature on our work — “Beekeepers launch their own tools” — in its Rural Matters section. It’s a lovely piece, and we’re grateful to journalist Afraa Kori for telling the story so carefully.
The feature is about something we care about deeply: the free, beekeeper-led Varroa monitoring tool we’ve built, and the gap it’s designed to fill.
Why we built it
Varroa mite is now established in Victoria, and in 2026 the mites began resisting the main chemical treatments beekeepers have relied on. That changes the most important question a beekeeper can ask — from “will Varroa reach me?” to “did my treatment actually work?”
The trouble is, most beekeepers treat and hope. If a treatment quietly fails, mite loads climb invisibly until a colony collapses. So we built a free tool that lets beekeepers do a simple alcohol wash, record the count on their phone at the apiary, and see in plain language whether their mites are below the action threshold — and whether their treatment worked.
Every wash a beekeeper contributes also helps build an honest, region-by-region picture of which treatments are still working and where resistance is emerging. No single beekeeper can see that alone. Together, we can. It complements official reporting — it never replaces it.
Try it, or read the story
If you keep bees in Victoria, the tool is free to use and takes minutes.
The feature is now online too — you can read it at Pakenham News, or find it in the print edition of the Berwick-Pakenham Gazette, Rural Matters section (1 July 2026).