Zombie Flies

Although the threat to honeybee populations has been reported for some time, the cause isn't always known with certainty. There have been discussions about pesticides, climate change, and other topics. But zombie flies also exist.

In this situation, honeybees serve as the hosts for these flies' eggs, which hatch into larvae that kill the host insect as they grow within. The flies have been shown doing this to kill wasps and even bumblebees, but it wasn't until 2012 that it was seen happening to honeybees.

Given how extensively honeybees have been studied, it was startling to learn that they had never been observed in honeybees before. Even more astonishingly, the parasites were detected in 77% of the hives in California's Bay area when researchers went investigating after learning about them. The parasites make the bees abandon their nests and fly aimlessly until they pass away, at which point the maggots crawl out.