Bay Area Skeptics: Honey Bee Health: Myths, Mites and ZomBees

Who: Dr. John Hafernik

What: Honey Bee Health: Myths, Mites and ZomBees

When: 7:30pm, Thursday, January 14, 2015 – (Every second Thursday of the month)

Where: La Peña lounge

Why: Because we are curious creatures

Honey Bee Health: Myths, Mites and ZomBees

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.

Our Bio:

Bay Area Skeptics was founded in June 1982 as the first “local interest group” inspired by the Center for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), now known as the Center for Scientific Inquiry (CSI). Although they have overlapping interests with CSI, BAS is independent of all other groups.

The organization encourages critical thinking and accuracy in the media and in our schools. They encourage rational thought and critical thinking through the use of scientific methods. They are particularly interested in such topics as claims of the paranormal, pseudoscience, and untested or poorly tested medical and psychotherapeutic practices.