Vatorex

Bee mortality has been a hot topic for years. Winter losses of bee colonies are increasing not only among the 18,000 private and commercial beekeepers in Switzerland but worldwide. The honey bees are affected by both climate change and intensive monoculture farming. Another serious threat is the varroa mite: this parasite has spread across the globe from Asia, destroying large numbers of bee colonies.

There are pesticides that can combat the bug; however, they are only a temporary solution, and their effectiveness wanes over time. In 2012, biologist Willi Brunner took a fresh look at a biological antidote first considered in the 1970s – heat treatment – and applied it in an innovative way, heating the brood combs to 42°C. This approach is as simple as it is effective: bees can withstand this temperature, while the varroa parasites perish.

In 2016, Brunner founded Vatorex with his son Pascal. The same year, the two agritech pioneers launched a heating coil embedded in a brood comb. The solution reliably killed the mites, but it was difficult to install so was not as widely accepted by commercial beekeepers as had been hoped.

This experience spurred the company’s founders on to develop a new, easier-to-use heat treatment kit. A large-scale trial has been running in Canada since early 2023, supported by the Canadian industry organisation Alberta Beekeepers Commission and the agricultural funding agency RDAR. The new solution for protecting bee populations has enormous potential in this country in particular: honey bees are vital to the Canadian economy. If almost half of all bee colonies here die in one year, as happened in the winter of 2021, it is not only an ecological disaster but also an economic one.

The company’s seven-strong team has come up with a globally unique, patented solution for preserving honey bees and strengthening biodiversity. With a moderate investment, beekeepers can reduce the loss of bee colonies from 50 percent to 10–15 percent. And the benefit is not only measured in terms of honey yield. As pollinating insects, bees are essential to agricultural yields and the preservation of plant diversity. According to an estimate published by the European Parliament, the value of agricultural production attributed to insect pollination is around 15 billion euros in the EU alone.