Traces the parasite to turn bees into living corpses

In recent years an epidemic has swept into the west and east coasts of the United States, scientists called by the name "Zombie Ong".

This honey bee does not transform into corpses in the TV show "The Walking Dead". But they are still involuntary victims of a parasite that causes unusual "zombie" behaviors just before the bee dies.

To learn about the parasitic army, John Hafernik, an entomologist at San Francisco State University, recruited three people to pursue the hunt across the United States.

"The big question for us is," Is this a unique phenomenon in San Francisco? "Or is the scope of this infection across the country and for some reason researchers Is biological rescue not noticed before? " explained John Hafernik. Since he started this project 4 years ago, he has concluded that the answer lies on the back.

Honey bees are involuntary victims of a parasite that causes unusual "zombie" behaviors.

Volunteers helped him identify infected bees in California, Washington and Oregon, as well as Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York. More than 800 bee surveys are uploaded to the online database at ZomBee Watch.

Dr. Hafernik first discovered the bizarre behavior of bees at his university campus in 2008, when he caught a few bees who flew in circles on the roadside. For several weeks he collected a few bees and saved them in test tubes, feeding them with mantis.

During this time he had left a tube on his desk for several weeks, the bees in it, though dead, a flock of brown flies instead clung to the glass wall. He realized the fact that the bees were violated by the parasite.

After continuing the campaign across the Bay of San Francisco, Ph.D and colleagues found that many other bees have similar behaviors. They flew out of the nest in the evening, something a bee usually never did, then flew around some light. After performing this dance in the dark, bees fall into the ground and crawl bizarre. At this time the maggots have completely conquered bees.

The life cycle of a parasitic fly is equally horrifying as a science fiction scenario.

The life cycle of a parasitic fly is equally horrifying as a science fiction scenario. First the female flies her egg with an underground part shaped like a needle into the belly of a honey bee. About a week later the swarming herds crawled to the neck and began absorbing muscles controlling the wings after liquefying them. And then, no different from the climax in the movie "Alien" , they puncture the soft flesh between the head and shoulders, crawling out of the body of the bee.

"So far, research shows that once the parasite is attached to the parasite, the honey bee basically suffers a death sentence, and there has not been an infected case with bees alive , " Dr Hafernik said.

According to a survey of San Francisco Bay, about 80% of the total number of beehives has been infected. Understanding more about how they disperse is important in preventing this disease even though this phenomenon is not the main cause of the decline in the number of bees in the United States.