---
title: "Fly Creating ‘Zombie Bees’ Arrive in Canada for the First Time"
description: "Zombie-like behaviors in bees are caused by a parasitoid fly which lays its eggs inside the bee that later hatch into maggots that eat the insides of its host and eventually kill it. The phenomenon had only been observed in the U.S., but now zombie bees have been found further north."
date: "2016-08-18"
modified: "2016-11-29"
authors:
  - name: "Andy Palma"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/andy-palma"
url: "https://futurism.com/fly-creating-zombie-honeybees-arrive-in-canada-for-the-first-time"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "honey bees"
  - "parasite"
  - "phorid fly"
---

# Fly Creating ‘Zombie Bees’ Arrive in Canada for the First Time

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/A-John-Hafernik.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: John Hafernik\</em\>*

Beekeeper from Nanaimo, B.C. Sarah Wallbank had just recently set up a honeybee hive in her patio when she began to notice honeybees acting strangely — they were coming out at night and smashing themselves into her porch light. And then a little later, they fell to the ground and died.

Through [ZomBee Watch](<https://www.zombeewatch.org/>) — a citizen science project that tracks infected bees — Wallbank received information that her bees were infected with the maggots of a phorid fly, or *Apopcephalis borealis*, which caused the bees to act disoriented and [behave like zombies](<https://futurism.com/body-invaders-and-zombies-of-the-animal-kingdom>).

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/a-borealis.jpg>)
*Female phorid flies infecting a bee. Photo by: Christopher Quock*

According to Dr. John Hafernik, Biology professor at San Francisco State University and founder of Zombee Watch, *A. borealis* is found all over North America, and targets bumblebees or yellow jacket wasps as hosts.

It is only within the past decade that the flies have been found to infect honeybees in the United States, and [Wallbank’s report](<http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/zombie-honeybees-found-in-canada-for-first-time-vancouver-islands-insects-killed-by-parasitizing-flies>) was the first one in Canada.

Hafernik is concerned whether the fly’s ability to infect honeybees is a recent development or just went unnoticed until now.