The fate of the Osborn family's pumpkin crop lies in the hands of the state government.
They planted 12,000 seedlings this week and without bees to pollinate them there won't be a pumpkin harvest.
The plan to extinguish the varroa mite has handed a death sentence to all of the honey bee hives in the eradication zone - including the 20 at their farm in Pitnacree.
Authorities have inspected the hives and confirmed the bees don't have the varroa mite, but they still intend to kill all of them.
Roger Osborn has asked the NSW Department of Primary Industries to allow his bees to live while they don't have the mite - so they can pollinate his crop.
He is happy for the authorities to regularly inspect the hives and euthanise them if the mite is detected. He can't get an answer out of the department - and time is running out.
"I'm very worried," Mr Osborn said. "I'm not sure where we are heading. Without bees we won't have pollination, we won't have any pumpkins for a pumpkin harvest."
The NSW DPI has confirmed honey bees will be banned from the eradication zone for three years. That news has left vegetable growers questioning their future in agriculture.
A spokeswoman said any movement of hives within the eradication zone carried a high risk of spreading varroa mite.
She said it had allowed the movement of commercial bee hives for pollination and honey production within the general emergency zone - which includes most of NSW - and that risk-based approach supported agriculture in NSW.
"Eradication of hives will greatly benefit the broader agricultural and horticultural industries," she said.
In about 60 days flowers will appear on the vines and the bees will be needed. Mass pollination won't occur without bees and the crop will be a complete failure.
There are other types of pollinators - like hover flies, butterflies and moths - but there is no guarantee they will thoroughly pollinate an entire crop.
"There is no better pollinator than the honey bee," Mr Osborn said. "There have been flies used for pollination in Tasmania but they don't live as long as a honey bee and they don't do as good a job."
Fifteen thousand pumpkin seedlings will arrive at the Dennis family farm in East Maitland next week. The Osborn and Dennis family farms weren't in the red zone when the seedlings were ordered months ago.
Now Matthew Dennis is planting a pollinator seed mix to try to attract other kinds of pollinators to the farm. He openly admits it's an experiment and he doesn't know if the pumpkin crop will triumph or perish. Pumpkins are one of their main summer crops.
So are watermelons - and 8000 seedlings were planted last week. "If the watermelons don't get pollinated they won't produce a crop either. They are the main crops that we grow and the bulk of them go to the Sydney markets," he said.
Mr Dennis said his weekly vegetable boxes won't have as much variety in the future and he wasn't sure if customers would still want to buy them.
The Osborns normally produce at least 100 tonnes of pumpkin each year. They are sold through the Newcastle and Sydney markets and reach consumers through the supermarket.
Mr Osborn has tried to source native bee hives as an alternate pollination source but even that has hit a snag.
The DPI plans to bait all of the feral honey bees. When that happens any native bees in the area would end up dead as well.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Newcastle Herald website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.
