For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Honey Bee Health & Colony Collapse Disorder page.
San Francisco biologists have made a macabre discovery that might help explain the mysterious crash of honeybee populations: parasites that turn bees into zombies.

Infected bees go mad, abandoning their hive in a suicidal rush toward bright lights, according to a new study by San Francisco State researchers.

“It’s the flight of the living dead,” said lead investigator and biology professor John Hafernik, also president of the California Academy of Sciences.

The parasite, a tiny fly, has been found in bees from three-quarters of the 31 surveyed hives in the Bay Area — essentially, everywhere except Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

In a plotline similar to a George Romero horror film, the fly deposits its eggs into the bee’s abdomen, then takes over. The hapless bees walk around in circles, with no apparent sense of direction. Some are unable to even stand on their legs.

“They kept stretching them out and then falling over,” Hafernik said. “It really painted a picture of something like a zombie.”

The bees’ demise may contribute to what’s known as Colony Collapse Disorder, the phenomenon of failing honeybee hives around the United States — and a great concern in the agricultural community, which depends on these pollinators.

Despite six years of intense research, scientists have been unable to find a single reason for colony collapse. Increasingly, they suspect that several factors, including viruses and fungus, may be to blame.