[eribue]

Hi everyone! I'm a graduate student at San Francisco State University studying the effects zombie fly parasitism on honey bee behavior and physiology!
Please check out our crowd funding page! Our project is important and uses the latest techniques in molecular genetics to understand the influence of A. borealis on honey bee behavior. Please spread the word about our project to beekeepers and others concerned about honey bee health and the environment. Thanks!!

https://experiment.com/projects/zombees-are-parasites-controlling-the-minds-of-honey-bees

 

[eribue]

Hi everyone! I'm a graduate student at San Francisco State University studying the effects zombie fly parasitism on honey bee behavior and physiology!
Please check out our crowd funding page! Our project is important and uses the latest techniques in molecular genetics to understand the influence of A. borealis on honey bee behavior. Please spread the word about our project to beekeepers and others concerned about honey bee health and the environment. Thanks!!

https://experiment.com/projects/zombees-are-parasites-controlling-the-minds-of-honey-bees

Please feel free to ask me any questions concerning zombie flies and my research! I'd be happy to answer them

 

[melliferal]

How did you think this up? It's the craziest idea for a research project I've ever heard; I wish I had thought of it.

Consider your link shared.

 

[Barry]

You might want to check the grammar on your funding page. Doesn't bode well when sentences aren't constructed properly.

 

[eribue]

How did you think this up? It's the craziest idea for a research project I've ever heard; I wish I had thought of it.

Consider your link shared.

Hi melliferal,

When I first heard about the strange behavior of zombees, my advisor and I couldn't help but wonder what was driving parasitized bees to abandon the hive at night. So we came up with the idea that maybe the parasitic flies were altering the genetic expression of their host in a way that allowed them to remain active at night. This is where the circadian rhythm part comes in. Because honey bee foragers have strong circadian rhythms(meaning they are active during the day and non-active at night), they express clock genes in a cyclical fashion throughout the 24hr day. What we propose is that the fly larvae are somehow altering the expression of clock genes inside the brains of honey bees. Thus, a parasitized honey bee may be expressing clock genes at a similar level as it would during the day when it is abandoning the hive at night. This is just one idea out of many, the research will speak for it self. Thanks for sharing the link!

 

[eribue]

Sure thing Barry.

 

[eribue]

Hi everyone, we've got 27 days to meet our goal. I want to thank those who have shared our project with others!

Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/phr3qvh

Help us make our research a reality!

 

[KQ6AR]

I have friends who worked on that project years ago. They sampled my apiary monthly.
https://www.zombeewatch.org/

 

[eribue]

Dan,

I know the friends that you speak of! Andy and Johnathan were the first grad students to work on the infection prevalence in the bay area and it's great that you are aware of our citizen science project as well! The peak season in zombee infections is coming up soon. Could you help us spread the word to others about our research project at SF state?

Thanks,
Erika

 

[KQ6AR]

You are correct. I spoke to Johnathan the other day, he said he knows you.
He has become a good beekeeper since working on the project, & meeting so many beekeepers.

Have you spoken at different bee clubs in the area? That's how Johnathan & Andy met, & became friends with so many of us.

 

[eribue]

You are correct. I spoke to Johnathan the other day, he said he knows you.
He has become a good beekeeper since working on the project, & meeting so many beekeepers.

Have you spoken at different bee clubs in the area? That's how Johnathan & Andy met, & became friends with so many of us.

Yes, I have reached out to several around associations around the bay but it would be great to reach out to ones outside of the bay as well.

 

[eribue]

Hello everyone! Just a reminder, we only have 15 days left to meet our goal! Help us get 100% funded by contributing any amount to our crowd funding site on experiment.com

Your help will directly support the materials needed to conduct research on zombees. We don't know much about the impacts of parasitism on honey bee behavior so it's important that we study the effects of this newly discovered honey bee parasitoid. Here is the link to our page, please feel free to share it with others!

experiment.com/projects/zombees-are-parasites-controlling-the-minds-of-honey-bees

Thank you!
ERIKA

 

[eribue]

Hello again,

I wanted to share with you all a blog that written about our crowd funding campaign on zombees. It was written by Joe Ballenger, an entomologist and blogger out of Mississippi. I encourage everyone to give it a read and help us get the word out. There is only 8 days left to meet our goal!

http://www.biofortified.org/2014/08/help-erika-bueno-fund-her-graduate-project/

Thanks,
Erika