STEP 4: When you’re ready to begin, hang the trap in your chosen location and turn on the light. If possible, turn off nearby lights so the honey bees go to your light trap. Leave the trap overnight. Remember to turn the light off each morning to save battery life and release any live bugs (other than honey bees) that have been accidentally caught in the trap.

While not finding bees in your trap after several days may be an indicator that the zombie flies are not present in your area, the trap location and timing could be a factor in trapping bees. Both the presence and absence of bees as well as location and environmental factors are all important notes to make in your observation submission.

STEP 5: If you find a stranded honey bee near a light or in the trap, very carefully transfer the bee to a holding container (clear jars with lids or resealable plastic food containers will work). Keep the container out of the sun. Infected honey bees are not healthy and die quickly. Storage temperature of the sample could affect how quickly the fly larvae and adult flies will appear.

STEP 6: The zombie flies lay their eggs inside the bee, which becomes disoriented and dies after being infected. You can tell if this has occurred after the bee dies because the fly’s larvae and pupae will emerge from the deceased bee. Here's the important step! Take pictures of your bee samples for uploading later when submitting data.

Periodically check the samples:
• 5–14 days for fly larvae (maggots)
• 15–28 additional days for adult flies

STEP 7: Submit your data and share your pictures and observations. Report the results of your experiment, even if you don’t catch any bees at all! ZERO bees are an important data point!

SUBMIT DATA