
Zombie bees leave the hive at night - narad
http://wtvr.com/2012/09/25/zombie-bees-discovered/
======
exDM69
I've only read news about this from bad sources and this one did not clarify
my misconceptions either. Someone who has read better news than I, please set
me straight on this simple thing.

Are the "zombie" bees in question: 1) Undead creatures or 2) Normal bees that
been infected by a parasite and acting against their nature?

In other words, is there a parasite that causes dead bees to come to life? Or
is the "zombie" metaphor used to indicate that they don't really have a will
and mind of their own?

I feel really stupid asking this, but all the news I've read have been
incredibly badly written. You can only imagine how bad the Finnish
translations of this news have been, given the quality of the original English
articles.

~~~
mythobit
It appears to be a parasite taking control of the host.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocephalus_borealis>

[http://news.discovery.com/animals/parasite-bees-
zombies-0105...](http://news.discovery.com/animals/parasite-bees-
zombies-010512.html)

~~~
exDM69
Thank you, sir! I feel 1000% less stupid now.

------
dexen
Previously: fungus zombifies ants:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3392038> (and other stories at
[http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=zombie+ant&...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=zombie+ant&start=0)
)

Unlike the seemingly-confused bees in this story, the mind-controled ants
exhibit very specific behavior, resulting in them ending up on very specific
part of plant and in specific relation to sunlight and local humidity.

[edit]

<http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6785-11-13.pdf> seems to be a
shorter version of a full-lenght paper I can't at this moment.

------
risratorn
> _“If you find bees on a sidewalk, or under a street light or under your
> porch light, it’s real simple. You take a Ziploc bag. You put the bees in.
> You leave ‘em set for a week and see if anything happens,” he said._

Hell no ... I don't want to see a bag with dead bees exploding with parasitic
zombie flies

------
fghh45sdfhr3
_The parasitic fly is native to North American and only recently started
infecting honeybees, which were brought over from Europe._

Interesting. If the fly has evolved to infect bees, then it might take a while
before the bees evolve resistance to it. Honey in America might be about to go
up in price.

And how is the rest of the world making sure these American flies don't make
it out of America?

~~~
route66
Good questions. One problem is, that the number of races used for professional
(and hobby) beekeeping is already very small. Mostly queens are selected for
laying eggs for peaceful and prodcutive workers, not so much for hygiene
(removing infected sisters) or defense-oriented (beekeepers don't like that)
bees.

As a consequence the current races might not be able to evolve resistance so
easily. Earlier efforts to breed European bees in combination with (I think)
Japanese bees both imported to the Philippines led to the import of varroa
destructor mites.

Man is not so lucky with his manipulation of nature, it seems. Or choose
another word.

