Night of the Zombees? Scientists seek link to colony collapse disorder.
Zombie bees have been spotted along the West Coast and recently in some Eastern states, making experts question why already-threatened honeybees are unwillingly abandoning their hives.
Researchers believe that Apocephalus borealis flies may be depositing eggs in the bees鈥� stomach, changing their behavior. The theory is that, once the honeybees have maggots in their abdomen, they fly erratically in uncharacteristic night flights, usually staggering around porch lights before falling dead.
Although zombie bees are similarly led to abandon their hives in colony collapse disorder (CCD), experts are unsure if they can link this phenomenon to CCD. Currently, the believes that the leading causes of CCD 鈥� which occurs when a majority of worker bees in a colony abandon their hive 鈥� are invasive mites and pesticide poisoning.
鈥淲别鈥檙别 for bees,鈥� Dr. John Hafernik, a biology professor at San Francisco State University told the Associated Press. 鈥淏ut it is certainly an interesting situation where we have a parasite that seems to affect the behavior of bees and has them essentially abandoning their hive.鈥�
Dr. Hafernik organized the project in 2012, which allows 鈥渃itizen scientists鈥� to document where Apocephalus borealis infestations are occurring around the country to better inform researchers.
鈥淯nderstanding causes of the hive abandonment behavior we document could explain symptoms associated with CCD,鈥澛� Hafernik and his co-authors write in a on the parasitic fly apocephalus borealis published in the open access journal PLOS. 鈥淔urther, knowledge of this parasite could help prevent its spread into regions of the world where na茂ve hosts may be easily susceptible to attack.鈥�
We have a lot to learn about these parasite flies, but both beekeepers and scientists say its too early to fear "The Buzzing Dead."
鈥淵ou know, the 鈥榸ombie鈥� thing is a and some people hear that and they go right into alarm bells ringing,鈥� Joe Naughton, a beekeeper of over 200,000 bees in New York told the Associated Press. 鈥淲here the state of things are right now is mostly just fact finding.鈥澛�
Hafernik agrees, confirming that we do not know if the fly has an impact on colony productivity, or a role in CCD. 聽So although we shouldn鈥檛 fear zombie bees themselves, experts fear this additional stress could hurt already decreasing populations.聽
We have about 40 percent loss of all colonies nationwide, so bees are having a pretty tough time just surviving,鈥� San Francisco beekeeper Robert Mackimmie told the Associated Press. 鈥淚t鈥檚 tough to be a bee these days.鈥�
And Ramesh Sagili, assistant professor of apiculture at Oregon State University told the Associated Press he agrees. 鈥淲e have several other stresses on bees and we don鈥檛 want any other stress like this one. We have to be cautious, but I鈥檓 not alarmed that this parasite is going to create a big problem.鈥�
