High-Tech Bee Hive Protects Australia's Bees from Deadly Mites

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Purple Hive Project
3. The Importance of Bees in Agriculture
4. The Threat of Varroa Destructor
5. The Current Process for Monitoring Varroa Destructor
6. The Vermonter Tech Solution
7. The Role of Bigger Cheese in the Purple Hive Project
8. The Link to the Search for Life on Mars
9. The Benefits of the Purple Hive Project
10. The Future of the Purple Hive Project

The Purple Hive Project: Protecting Australia's Bees with High-Tech Surveillance

Australia's honey industry has joined forces with one of the country's biggest dairy companies to launch the Purple Hive Project, a high-tech early warning system for invading bee-killing pests. The project aims to protect the Australian bee industry from the threat of Varroa destructor, a mite that has destroyed many bee colonies throughout the world. The Purple Hive Project is a tough plastic module mounted to the front of the hive, which monitors every single bee as it comes in and out of the hive. The device is equipped with two cameras that take an image every Second and detect whether the Varroa mite is on the bee. If the pest is detected, the unit sends an immediate alert to a device such as a mobile phone.

The Importance of Bees in Agriculture

More than a third of the world's food production relies on pollination by animals, and more than 80% of that is done by honey bees. For Australia's agricultural and horticultural industries, bees are estimated to be worth annually more than six billion dollars. The Purple Hive Project is an enormous breakthrough that means beekeepers no longer have to check their hives manually. If technology alerts them on their phone, they Instantly know there's a problem and can go out and do something about it. This is important because timing is everything. If a problem is there for a month or a week or two weeks, it may already be too late.

The Threat of Varroa Destructor

Varroa destructor is a blood-sucking parasite that has a devastating impact on bee health and their ability to pollinate food crops and produce honey. The mite collects lots of viruses along the way, so the bees' health really suffers from it. Australia is the last inhabited continent to be free of the Varroa destructor, and the arrival of the mite would be a disaster for the country's agriculture sector. The Purple Hive Project is a frontline defense against the mite, and the intention is to Roll it out to the entry points of Australia, which are the biggest risk areas being the ports of Australia.

The Current Process for Monitoring Varroa Destructor

The current process for monitoring the Varroa destructor is painstakingly manual, and it requires chemicals and a great deal of work. A lot of beekeepers would give up because of the average age of beekeepers being over 60 now. It would mean that they'd have to do so much work, extra checking on hives, and things like that that would be very difficult. Varroa is literally on Australia's doorstep. It reached New Zealand some years ago and is entrenched in Papua New Guinea.

The Vermonter Tech Solution

Joel Cooperholz and Vignesh Murugan, the founders of Vermonter Tech, had the solution to the problem. They were both working on a similar sort of project, and an alignment of values just brought them together where they both wanted to make a difference and help prevent the mite from getting into Australia and keep Australia's agriculture sector safe. They applied their experience in field robotics and the integration between robotics and humans to the Australian agriculture sector and started Vermonter Tech to focus on Australian farmers.

The Role of Bigger Cheese in the Purple Hive Project

Bigger Cheese, one of Australia's biggest dairy companies, diversified into table spreads a few years ago by buying a couple of famous ones, Vegemite and peanut butter. Now it's adding pure Australian honey to its product line. The company was also aware of the threat from pests like Varroa, so it turned to technology. The Vermonter Tech solution was a perfect fit for the company's needs, and the result was the Purple Hive Project.

The Link to the Search for Life on Mars

Cooperholz and Murugan met at university working on a project to build the first semi-autonomous Mars rover designed to assist astronauts as they go to Mars. This idea of field robotics and the integration between robotics and humans really inspired them, and they found that they had a great working relationship. They decided to take that and Apply it to the Australian agriculture sector. The link to the search for life on Mars comes in because they take from their work at photos in a Quest to find signs of life on the red planet.

The Benefits of the Purple Hive Project

The Purple Hive Project is a world-first for the Australian bee industry, and it ultimately protects the bee industry, which is critically important. The developers are already looking at the global market, so beyond our shores is the next phase of the project, where they want to try and use this technology to help farmers globally in the agriculture sector globally. The Purple Hive Project is solar-powered and uses 4G to connect back because we're talking rural Australia here. The system is strong enough to withstand kangaroos scratching against the hives.

The Future of the Purple Hive Project

The intention is to establish a mesh network where the Purple Hive can be attached to any beehive around Australia to develop something that is a world first for the Australian bee industry. The developers believe that the technology can be used to monitor the incidence of the Varroa mite and even eliminate it by creating a quarantine system. As soon as the device detects a Varroa mite, it might push away the bee that is infected into another container and quarantine them so it Never actually enters the hive, and then You no longer have new Varroa mites. There is definite potential for this device, and the developers are excited about the possibilities.

Highlights

• The Purple Hive Project is a high-tech early warning system for invading bee-killing pests.
• The project aims to protect the Australian bee industry from the threat of Varroa destructor, a mite that has destroyed many bee colonies throughout the world.
• The Purple Hive Project is a world-first for the Australian bee industry, and it ultimately protects the bee industry, which is critically important.
• The developers are already looking at the global market, so beyond our shores is the next phase of the project, where they want to try and use this technology to help farmers globally in the agriculture sector globally.
• The Purple Hive Project is solar-powered and uses 4G to connect back because we're talking rural Australia here.

FAQ

Q: What is the Purple Hive Project? A: The Purple Hive Project is a high-tech early warning system for invading bee-killing pests. The project aims to protect the Australian bee industry from the threat of Varroa destructor, a mite that has destroyed many bee colonies throughout the world.

Q: How does the Purple Hive Project work? A: The Purple Hive Project is a tough plastic module mounted to the front of the hive, which monitors every single bee as it comes in and out of the hive. The device is equipped with two cameras that take an image every second and detect whether the Varroa mite is on the bee. If the pest is detected, the unit sends an immediate alert to a device such as a mobile phone.

Q: Why is the Purple Hive Project important? A: More than a third of the world's food production relies on pollination by animals, and more than 80% of that is done by honey bees. For Australia's agricultural and horticultural industries, bees are estimated to be worth annually more than six billion dollars. The Purple Hive Project is an enormous breakthrough that means beekeepers no longer have to check their hives manually.

Q: What is the threat of Varroa destructor? A: Varroa destructor is a blood-sucking parasite that has a devastating impact on bee health and their ability to pollinate food crops and produce honey. The mite collects lots of viruses along the way, so the bees' health really suffers from it. Australia is the last inhabited continent to be free of the Varroa destructor, and the arrival of the mite would be a disaster for the country's agriculture sector.

Q: What is the Vermonter Tech solution? A: Joel Cooperholz and Vignesh Murugan, the founders of Vermonter Tech, had the solution to the problem. They were both working on a similar sort of project, and an alignment of values just brought them together where they both wanted to make a difference and help prevent the mite from getting into Australia and keep Australia's agriculture sector safe. They applied their experience in field robotics and the integration between robotics and humans to the Australian agriculture sector and started Vermonter Tech to focus on Australian farmers.