Bees, or specifically bee excrement, was once again the topic of discussion during the regular Morton City Council meeting held on Monday, Oct. 26, inside the Bob Lyle Community Center.
During the meeting, councilors also approved the City of Morton’s 2027 budget’s first reading, with the second and final reading scheduled for the council’s next meeting on Nov. 23. According to the council’s meeting agenda packet, available on the City of Morton’s website, the budget is balanced with revenues and expenditures across all funds totalling $8,055,597 each.
Councilors also approved an amended interlocal agreement (ILA) with the City of Napavine for municipal court services.
According to Morton City Clerk LuAnn Ward, the only change to the ILA was taking out the end date, removing the need to renew the ILA annually and allowing for either city to back out of it at any time, if their prospective city councils vote to do so.
And while Councilor Jason Sawyer had placed discussion topics on Monday’s meeting agenda pertaining to adding a Zoom or similar remote attendance option to their meetings and having official city recordings of council meetings, prior to approving the agenda, the council voted to amend it to remove these items from official discussion.
As for the bee poop issue, Washington state Department of Agriculture Pollinator Health Coordinator Dr. Katie Buckley was on hand to discuss the matter.
Bee excrement was discussed during the September Morton City Council meeting after multiple residents raised concerns about seeing excessive amounts of it as previously reported by The Chronicle.
Buckley explained that normally, bee excrement isn’t that noticeable, and what residents were describing might actually be symptoms of nosema.
“What is most likely is those hives have nosema, which essentially is bee diarrhea. It is a disease that needs to be treated, and it has a treatment, called fumidil or fumagillin,” Buckley said. “... If (the excrement) is long, and like, streaky, that is a very common sign of nosema. That beekeeper just needs to treat their bees.”
According to Buckley, nosema treatments are available at most apiary supply stores, or online.
“Honestly, if they haven't been treated for that by now, those bees will probably not survive the winter,” said Buckley.
She added there might be other factors in play as to the excessive amounts of bee poop some residents are reporting, including location of the bees' water sources in proximity to their hives, but stated a nosema infection was the most likely cause.
