ZomBees & Honey Bee Health: Myths & Mites | Berkeley

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Concern about threats to honey bees is mounting. In the U.S., hive failure rates have increased as honey bees deal with introduced mites, diseases, pesticides and other stressors.

Recently a new threat to honey bees, the parasitic phorid fly Apocephalus borealis (AKA the Zombie Fly), was discovered in San Francisco. Bees infected by the fly (Zombees) show disoriented zombie-like behavior leaving their hive at night to die under nearby lights. San Francisco State’s Dr. John Hafernik will discuss the implications of zombie fly parasitism and other threats to honey bees in the Bay Area and beyond and how the public can get involved in tracking prevalence of parasitism across North America through the citizen science project ZomBee Watch (zombeewatch.org). He will also address bee pseudoscience – common public misconceptions associated with honey bees from threats from cell phones to exaggerated reports about the current plight of honey bees.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.