Zombie Bees Found in Washington

Zombie bees have now been confirmed in Washington state, they had previously only been found in California, South Dakota, and Oregon. A novice bee keeper in Seattle discovered that some of his bees had been infected, he brought his story to local universities and the Seattle Times.

San Francisco State University biologist John Hafernik uses the movie of Alien to describe what happens to the bees.

Adult females, smaller than a fruit fly, land on the backs of foraging honeybees and use their needle sharp ovipositors to inject eggs into the bee's abdomen. The eggs hatch into maggots. They basically eat the insides out of the bee. After consuming their host, the maggots pupate, forming a hard outer shell that looks like a fat, brown grain of rice. Three to four weeks later adults are born.

It's unclear why flies started doing this in 2008, but the implications are frightening. Bees are responsible for pollinating most plants in the world, especially farm crops. If bee populations are hurt by this, it could effect quantity of crops as well.

That's not exactly encouraging words after this summer, which saw some of the worst droughts in decades. Shortages of many foods are quite possible, even in the US, next year.