There are fears that Australia's bees, which help pollinate up to $4 billion worth of crops each year, may be at risk of exposure to a dangerous mite that could devastate the fruit and vegetable industries.

Australia is the only remaining honey-producing country in the world not exposed to the varroa mite which wipes out 20 to 30 per cent of the bee populations it encounters.

Across the world apiarists have thrown everything at the mite, but all in vain. It is feared it will inevitably enter Australia, with the weakest spots being ports in north Queensland.

If the mite enters Australia it could infest all eastern states within five years.

Australian Honey Bee Industry Council spokesman Trevor Weatherhead says bees are incredibly important to a number of agricultural industries.

"Canola and sunflower - for the seed production of that - they need bees for pollinating," he said.

"And then you've got all your cucurbit family, the watermelons, pumpkins, rockmelons, honeydews. Again they need honey bees for pollination and if you don't have bees you don't get a crop."

Mr Weatherhead says the import danger zone is north Queensland.

"Just as a reminder that we have that threat from the north all the time and we need our quarantine people to be very watchful," he said.

"We've had cane toads, we've had rabbits in Australia, and this certainly will have a bigger impact on the economy than cane toads and rabbits will - that's for sure."

Danger zones

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 56 seconds 3 m 56 s Listen to Tom Nightingale's report Download 1.8 MB

Queensland is the front line of the bee threat.

Last month, quarantine workers found a swarm of 250 Asian honey bees on a ship at the Port of Townsville.

The bees were identified via video-link in Brisbane.

Queensland quarantine workers then hit the streets near the port searching for more bees.

Local residents were given containers to trap any bees they saw and given details of a hotline to call.

Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald says three weeks after one bee was found, he is still waiting for authorities to deal with the issue.

He also says Biosecurity Queensland has recently cut jobs.

"Twenty vets have been dismissed in January and February and I'm concerned that Queensland is at risk because the Queensland Government doesn't have sufficient personnel to do what they need to do," he said.

Biosecurity Queensland has informed the ABC that the bee is a common European bee and not an Asian Honey Bee.

The department is currently investigating the response time, and says it has changed hotline procedures so it won't happen again.

Significant

The department responsible says two vets are among 21 Biosecurity Queensland staff who are taking voluntary redundancies.

They will be replaced, but it is unclear when.

Workers on Thursday went to the Townsville house where the bee was found after PM asked the department about the lack of response.

It said the case was the only one not dealt with from 371 hotline calls in the past three months.

Senator Macdonald says the job cuts are significant.

"A lot of this information is coming from within the department itself, from people who are very concerned at the cutback in biosecurity staff," he said.

Asian honey bees were found to the north in Cairns a few years ago.

They did not have varroa mites and authorities have given up trying to eradicate the pests in favour of trying to contain them.