Deadly parasite turns honeybees into zombie slaves

[Scrapfe]

Is this... something new ? ...

I doubt it is anything new but it likely will take on a life of its own.

The short version is this:
Parasitic (zombie) flies from Argentina have been routinely released here by he USDA for over 15 years to combat red fire ants. The thinking is that these flies have now jumped prey species. I think these parasitic (de-heading) flies are being positioned to take the fall for CCD and all other bee maladies. Someone on another forum suggested (tongue in cheek) that all 57 state departments of agricultural are now writing grant requests to study this emergent problem.

No one has mentioned that honey producing heavyweight Argentina (where these flies originated) has not had any reported bee problems caused by these parasitic flies, and that South American honeybees have shared the environment with so the called "zombie" flies for maybe 500 years?

My advise is to you is this, "Baby, better get your BS boots on!" And call your broker in the morning and tell him to buy you all the tinfoil stock he can.

[Konrad]

Keep an eye on your bees!

http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/201...uzzing-undead/

[Vance G]

[QUOTE=mike haney;741195]could we have a synopsis for those of us on dial-up? There is a tiny fly that parasitizes bumblebees and has now been found in bee yards from California to South Dakota. It lays a dozen eggs in a victim. When the larvae are about grown, apparently the bee flies out of the colony even in the dark to die. Then the larvae can get out of the victim, and pupate in the soil or leaf litter. It is a new and sensational finding. I don't know how you would fight this one! Unless the sterile male stunt that wiped out screw worms in Texas. I doubt it is that big a problem, but who knows??? That is my jaded synopsis Mike and yer welcome.

[Acebird]

No one has mentioned that honey producing heavyweight Argentina (where these flies originated) has not had any reported bee problems caused by these parasitic flies, and that South American honeybees have shared the environment with so the called "zombie" flies for maybe 500 years?

That could be part of the problem with fooling around with mother nature. It is not the first time a parasite was brought to a different area and then it jumped ship on the targeted host. Maybe honey bees are not the host in Argentina.

[Ted Kretschmann]

Ace, I thought you had been "Zombified"over in the other thread and were still trying to get the plane off the ground?TED

[Ted Kretschmann]

Scrapfe, back in the late 1990's, the USDA released the Phoridae fly into the prairie areas of Alabama. The following winter, Alabama lost half of her remaining commercial colonies. We, the commercial beekeepers could never get the USDA to own up that their fly had jumped species. Mighty coincidental. TED

[Acebird]

Sounds like the USDA doesn't take commercial beekeepers seriously, maybe because their best skill is delivering wise cracks.

You can train a dog to get a plane of the ground the only difficult part is landing, for that you need a monkey.

[Katharina]

The species released for fire ants is not the same. Related yes, but still not the same.
I find the study alarming, and today I've read from a beekeeper down in Prunedale. He had 9 hives and 4 month later he is down to 1. I call that rapid infestation. The have also been reports from central CA of small fruit flies around their hives with sudden hive losses. The scary part is that one of those flies only needs 2-4 seconds to inject the eggs. 7 days later you have 25 larvae coming out of one bee. That is worse then varroa! All I can say collect dead bees where ever you can find them and store them in small little vails and wait for a week. That is the best way to track it as part of the IPM. Now I want to know what traps would work for those bugs. There has to be something that attacks them. Perhaps something with bee pheromones on a sticky board, covered with mesh small enough to only let those tiny flies in. I'm in southern Oregon and I'm very concerned. Used to live in the Monterey Bay area, and know that is nothing when it comes to distance. They already have it in South Dakota, and they were able to trace it back to pollination trucks with DNA testing.

[Katharina]

The phorid fly used for fire ants is: Pseudacteon tricuspis
The phorid fly attacking bees is: Apocephalus borealis

[Radford]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...212258832.html

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Welcome to the party!
http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...3-Fly-parasite
http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...-zombie-slaves
http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...Attacking-Bees

[Myron Denny]

Last summer we had a severe infestation of grasshoppers, about mid summer the grasshoppers turned black and died. Do you suppose this was caused by one of the phorid fly varieties?

[briancady413]

Flower Planter:
"ok, what have they been doing the last 3 years??? "

Perhaps they have been carefully checking that this is not just a local, incidental problem but a widespread, serious problem worthy of further consideration as a CCD cause.

Myron Denny: "Last summer we had a severe infestation of grasshoppers, about mid summer the grasshoppers turned black and died. Do you suppose this was caused by one of the phorid fly varieties? "

If we could look at some of those grasshoppers, perhaps we could tell.

[FlowerPlanter]

Flower Planter:
"ok, what have they been doing the last 3 years??? "

Perhaps they have been carefully checking that this is not just a local, incidental problem but a widespread, serious problem worthy of further consideration as a CCD cause.

What if this is something serious (either new or pre), and they sat on their stingers and told no one (oh that’s right they did that) and what if it spread and was the cause of CCD (which they hinted it could be) what about the 3 years of lost research that could have been done by the rest of the world. What about the beek that lost everything while they were sitting on their stingers???

And still 3 years later they don't seem to know very much, what exectly do they know about this fly?

So perhaps they need to go back and sit on their stingers another 3 years.

[Gypsi]

Do we know if we can build traps, maybe the old fashioned flytrap behind 1/8 inch screening near hive entrances, bait it with a scent that draws them?

[Myron Denny]

One of our locals lost a colony recently, I suggested he put some of the dead bees in a jar with a lid on it and put them in a warm place in his house. That was last Thursday, he should be seeing maggots in the next few days if that is the problem. I will post the results good or bad when he reports them.

[squarepeg]

on scientificbeekeeping.com, randy oliver gives instructions on how to catch live bees at night, and put them in a vented jar 'til they die, and check them later for the flys.

[odfrank]

My bee club sent this today:


Message from Joe Derisi on Media craziness: phorids and bees
It looks like the media has really run with the whole zombie-bee phorid thing. Charles and I are authors on that paper, but I want you to know that we do not agree with the statements being made in the press and by others, claiming that phorids are even remotely responsible for colony collapse.You may hear from your stakeholders that are listening to the popular press today. The media is way over-hyping this story.
Joseph DeRisi

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

UC San Francisco

[Ted Kretschmann]

Frank, why did these researchers sit on this information for three years??? That is more troubling to me than the fly itself. The industry is collapsing due to CCD and these guys just might have found the problem three years back?? If they had been a little more forthcoming, we might already have a cure for the fly and possible CCD. Sounds like they put research over reason and responsibility. TED

[Myron Denny]

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_19666381
I watched the above news clip showing Dr John Hafernik and his experience with the bees that were dyeing.

If any of you watched the u-tube of Dr John Hafernik he found the maggots quite by accident. It does not take very long to see his findings. I am surprised that if he is a scientist it has taken this amount of time to let the public know.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_19666381 This is what I Watched.