Another Night of the Living Dead [but with bees]
is upon us. Zombie bees have been caught
in Pennsylvania! First, zombie bees
appeared in California. It didn’t cause
too much commotion because, well, if there were going to be zombie bees anywhere,
wouldn’t you expect them to show up in California?
Then, the
zom-bees (I couldn’t resist) moved quietly through Oregon, but splashed into
the news cycle when they were discovered in Washington state. Where next?
Maybe, Canada? Maybe, Idaho? Niether.
South
Dakota.
South
Dakota? What does South Dakota have to
do with zombies? I’ve never seen a
respectable (or not so respectable) film about zombies set anywhere near the
Dakotas. But, before I recovered from
the shock, the zom-bees were discovered – 28
Days Later – in Vermont. Well,
actually, it wasn’t exactly 28
days. It was a few months. How did they get from South Dakota to
Vermont? Who knows? Maybe they took a plane. All I know is that zom-bees were confirmed in
Vermont.
But who actually
confirms the sinister movements of these evil zom-bees. Well, just as Count Dracula was followed by
the Dutch vampire expert Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, so the zom-bees are being
followed by San Francisco State University Professor John Hafernik. Heafernik, together with a team composed of a
few other concerned zom-bee researchers, is fighting this Resident Evil with modern tools.
If Dr. Van
Helsing had the Internet, we wouldn’t have the vampire problems we do
today. So, Professor Hafernick is using the
web to canvas the nation for any, and every, report of the appearance of
zom-bees. Together with the like-minded
members of his team, Hafernick created “ZomBee Watch” (http://www.zombeewatch.org). With the help of 2,000 citizen bee watchers
throughout the country, the team records sightings and keeps track of the
movements of zom-bees.
Meanwhile,
in the peaceful, pastoral fields of rural Pennsylvania . . .
Beekeeper
Sherry Grenzberg lived happily with her beloved bees. But she knew that zom-bees were moving
throughout the country. She lived,
first, in apprehension, then, in fear of the looming danger. Unable to endure the “waiting” any longer,
she moved herself and her bees to a mountaintop fortress to keep them far from
the threat of zombification. Gradually,
she relaxed and soon settled into what she believed to be a happy and safe life.
Then, one
dark night, she heard a “plinking” against her window. An insect seemed to be seeking the light of
her chandelier. The insect didn’t land
or fly away. It just kept bumping its
head into the glass of the window over and over again. Soon, it was joined by more insects plinking
against every window. To her horror she
recognized what, at least, used to be her
familiar honeybees -- completely zombified and surrounding her home. She turned, paused, and let out a blood curdling
scream.
Well,
actually, it didn’t happen quite that way.
Grenzberg had always lived and raised bees on the mountaintop. And, there was no “fortress” involved. And, she only saw one bee plinging against
the window. And, no, she didn’t actually scream. Instead, she went outside, took some photos,
gathered a sample of bees, and sent them to ZomBee Watch team-member Brian
Brown at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
(Yeah, . .
. but . . . it could have happened the
other way!)
Brown
confirmed that her bees had been zombified.
But, it isn’t the bees’ fault.
Just as the Haitian version of the human zombie is controlled by a
sinister puppet master called a bokor, so, the zombie bee is controlled by a
really sinister fly called Apocephalis
borealis. The fly lays its eggs in
an individual honeybee’s body. As the
eggs develop, they actually affect the bee’s behavior. Stranger still, the bee displays behaviors that seem
like those of a zombie.
Evil Zombie-Making Fly
Apacephalis borealis
Under the
influence of the developing fly larvae, the honey bee abandons its exclusively
daytime routine and does something bees don’t do — flies at night
Just before, and during, this “last flight” into the night, (what Hafernik
calls “the flight of the living dead,") the bee begins to move
erratically. It ends its flight in death. Then, the fly larvae eat
their way out of the dead bee to continue their growth to maturity.
If all this
isn’t strange enough, there is a genuine mystery involving the zombifing
fly. The Apacephalis borealis has been around for a long time. In North America, it’s been recognized, since
the 1920’s, as a parasite that attaches itself to bumblebees and wasps. But it never zombified them. Stranger, still, the fly had always left honeybees alone until the zom-bee outbreak of 2012. Then, the fly’s parasitic modus operandi turned
into a gruesome process of zombification.
Beekeepers are cautioned to keep
their hives as healthy as possible.
Healthy hives are most likely to resist or repel potential
infection. Hafernik went on to warn
beekeepers to check their hives carefully before the onset of winter to assure
the absence of infection before the bees retire to the hive and become inactive
during the winter season.
Mark Grossmann of Hazelwood,
Missouri
& Belleville, Illinois
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