Results from testing conducted by Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA) on dead bees from a town in South Australia's mid-north are inconclusive.
Last month, Peterborough locals witnessed bees dropping to the ground, writhing and then dying in their backyards and on the main street.
After they collected the dead insects, local Natasha Reid and her daughter, Acacia, delivered multiple sandwich bags filled with dead bees to PIRSA for testing.
PIRSA said the results have not found a conclusive reason of what killed the bees.
"Tests … did not find evidence of any exotic pests, including external mites," PIRSA said.
"However, PIRSA is still awaiting confirmation of the absence of any internal mites, as this will be verified through samples submitted as part of a national surveillance effort.
"PIRSA received insufficient numbers of bees from the Peterborough area to test for potential chemical poisoning impacts."
Differing opinions over cause of death
Peterborough is an old railway town, roughly 250 kilometres north of Adelaide.
Jason O'Connell, a local of 13 years, said he was concerned the bees might have been poisoned by the local council.
"It could be due to the council having sprayed weeds recently, especially since now the weeds are flowering," Mr O'Connell said.
"If they're spraying them, the bees get a direct dose of [weedkiller], or it could be colony collapse."
But Peterborough Mayor Ruth Whittle said the council had not sprayed chemicals near or on beehives.
"We haven't sprayed anything for weeks," she said.
"In fact, we've got people out there chipping weeds, not spraying weeds, because we've had such high winds.
"The council is not spraying bees at the moment, haven't been spraying for some time, and when we do spray we only spray weeds and we have no plans to do so in the future."
