The baiting program will start in the 10-kilometre red eradication zone of Jerry's Plains in the Hunter region, the baiting stations could be in place for up to 12 months.
"We'll do our first round then we'll come back [for] a number of rounds and if you're no longer attracting any bees then that's an indication there's no longer any bees present,"
They are using the insecticide Fipronil
According to APVMA website, Fipronil is still on assessment review stage::
https://apvma.gov.au/node/12546
Fipronil is used to control ants, beetles, cockroaches, fleas, ticks, termites, mole crickets, thrips, rootworms, weevils, and will kill all other insects.
A product banned in Europe since 2013.
[...]Fipronil degrades slowly on vegetation and relatively slowly in soil and in water, with a half-life ranging between 36 hr and 7.3 mon depending on substrate and conditions. It is relatively immobile in soil and has low potential to leach into groundwater..
[..]Risk assessment predictions have shown that some fipronil formulations present a risk to endangered bird, fish, and aquatic and marine invertebrates[2]
Extract from2012 APVMA review, 2012:
[...]Fipronil products are used for a wider range of applications in Australia than in other countries, and so the potential for environmental impacts is greater..
[...]Where these data were only available in regulatory studies not provided to the APVMA, or became available after the registration assessments in Australia, the results have been taken by DSEWPaC (Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities ) as given in the scoping assessment. These have identified greater toxicity than previously understood and, therefore, greater environmental concern.
The APVMA will review the following aspects of selected fipronil agricultural products relating to environmental concerns including but not limited to:
aquatic degradation
• persistence in environmental media (soil, water and sediment)
• the partitioning in the environment, for example through deposition and adsorption
• the toxicity to fish and aquatic invertebrates, sediment organisms, bees and non-target arthropods.
Forestry use is only registered for two products, 60284 and 62236 both category 1 (200g/L)
Source
[1] https://www.agriculturalinsecticides.com/quality-13256289-fipronil-agricultural-insecticides
[3] https://apvma.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication/18701-scope1_fipronil.pdf
[
2]Fipronil: environmental fate, ecotoxicology, and human health concerns:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12442503/