The Australian scientist who helped discover what was killing the world's honey bees believes he may be on the cusp of working out how to stop it - if he can just convince anyone to listen.

Denis Anderson was awarded the 2007 CSIRO medal for his work spreading awareness of the varroa destructor mite, a parasite that sucks the blood of European honey bees and has caused widespread carnage to populations across the world.

Bee Expert, Dr Denis Anderson, with some of his bees at Gungahlin. Credit:Rohan Thomson

The mite has spread to all major honey harvesting countries except Australia and is rated as one of the nation's greatest biosecurity threats.

But Dr Anderson, who identified and named the mite, has left the CSIRO out of frustration and says he has been forced to rely on funds from selling women's sandals to continue the research, because the CSIRO is unwilling to put money into solving the problem.