# Attracted to light and Untimate demise - Zombie Bees



## BeeTheBee (Mar 27, 2015)

I'm told Honey bees infected by the Zombie Fly leave their hives at night and are attracted to nearby lights where they become stranded and eventually die. The Problem is I like my outdoor shed light on. I work in the garden at night and like that light on all the time evry night. (( Is is safe to say only infected Bees will be attracted to light )) OR ARE ALL HONEY BEES ATTRACTED TO LIGHT. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing. My shed light is about 25 ft. from my Hive.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

I'd suggest that you turn your hive so the entrance does not directly face the light on the shed. If you can't turn the TBH, then do something to block the light from shining directly on the entrance of the hive.

Some hay bales stacked up in the right location may work as a light block if you can't come up with anything else.


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## dsegrest (May 15, 2014)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> I'd suggest that you turn your hive so the entrance does not directly face the light on the shed. If you can't turn the TBH, then do something to block the light from shining on the entrance of the hive.
> 
> Some hay bales stacked up in the right location may work as a light block if you can't come up with anything else.


I have a greenhouse right next to my beehives. The light is on until a little after mid-nite from mid-December to mid-March. It could be that it is just to cold for the bees to go out at night during that time; but I have not had a problem.


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## anthony61245 (Feb 1, 2015)

I'm in town and was wondering if a street light would be a problem ? I've never even heard of this zombie thing.


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## BeeGora (Oct 22, 2013)

Last summer I would have bees attracted to the kitchen light in the mornings. As soon as I got up and turned it on they would be climbing on the kitchen window. This was around 5am so it wasn't close to time for the sun to come up. However, they never came to it at night. I guess they were just early risers.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Bees use the sun to navigate. Polarized light from the sun is present even on a cloudy day. When the sun goes down, the bees go in the hive. But artificial light - at night - can confuse the bees and they fly towards the light. 

Obviously this doesn't happen with _every _light source, and most likely depends on the brightness of the light and _perhaps _its orientation and _perhaps _even the wavelength of that light source. Beekeepers moving hives at night recognize this as an issue with normal bees, which is why many would use red lights at night. Bees don't see red light very well (compared to other colors).

More on honeybee navigation by light: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3049011/

Zombie fly parasite affecting bees is a separate issue. More on that here:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/01/03/zombie-fly-parasite-killing-honeybees/


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## dadandsonsbees (Jan 25, 2012)

Here is some additional info that might help also. https://www.zombeewatch.org.
I thought I had an infestation of Zombee flies (phorid flies). I had noticed an extreme number (hundreds) of bees dead laying under an area light on my garage. I collected a number of them and placed them in a jar with a lid and waited to see if the flies emerged from the bee carcasses. After several days no signs of emergence. So I was elated that I did not have a "zombee" lurking in the yard. I am under the impression that the dead bees were foragers that were late getting back after dark and flew to the light. The area light is above my garage on my house and the bee yard is on the other side of my shop so the light is not in direct view of the hives.
I hope my particular happening and the link helps


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome BtB!


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## Westhill (Jul 26, 2012)

I just posted on this in another thread--I have a bright back door light that is about 12 feet from my one hive (tiny tiny yard, the hive is as far from the door as it can get without being in the neighbor's yard). The hive entrance faces away from the door/light but every night, only one or two bees come out and fly around the light, out of all the many thousands in the hive. I tested a bunch of them for zombie fly and they did not have it. I don't know why those particular bees come out and fly around and die at my light, but the light definitely does not bother the other bees, who stay in the hive all night.

To test for zombie fly--take one of your confused, light-seeking bees and put it in a jar. Rubber-band a piece of paper towel over the top (so air gets in, not because the bee is alive, but because the fly larva inside it is). Wait 5-15 days, and you should see either larvae or pupae of the flies in the jar with the bee. If not, your bees are like mine, confused for some other reason.

The other hypothesis I have about this is that my light comes on too early--right about sunset--and these few bees never go into the hive at the end of the day. Instead, they get confused and just come back late from foraging and circle the light until they die of exhaustion (or cold). My next solution is to turn the light on after full-dark, and then if that doesn't work, to get a dimmer bulb.


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