Australian Bee Observation Network (ABON)

Learning more about Australia's wild bees

What is ABON?

Ecosystems are vastly diverse expanses in time and space, making them remarkably interesting and complex, but equally as difficult to monitor.

ABON aims to facilitate the study and observation of Australia’s wild bees, using the help of citizen scientists to host network sites and collect information to send back to us .

Network sites have honey bee swarm traps which are monitored and sampled for us to examine. We look at pollen types, parasite and disease incidence, and perform genetic analysis.

Varroa mites have been declared as one of the greatest threats to honey bee health, and their detection in 2022 has made it clear that we need to learn more about Australia’s bee populations, including feral honey bees and native bees.

We are starting the network in New South Wales, in response to the incursion by Varroa, and hope to roll it out nation-wide.

Find out more