A new Swiss study gives the claim renewed merit. Daniel Favre, a teacher who previously worked as a biologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, put a mobile phone directly underneath a beehive and then monitored the bees' response.
The insects were able to tell when the handsets were making and receiving calls, and responded by making the high pitched noises that usually signal the start of swarming. Shortly after calls ended, the worker bees calmed down. They never swarmed, however, even after 20 hours of continuous cell phone activity.
Dr. Favre said of his research: "This study shows that the presence of an active mobile phone disturbs bees — and has a dramatic effect."
Those who continue to see cell phones as a risk suggest that the electromagnetic activity acts as an warning to leave the hive, but because the frequency confuses the bees, they simply fly erratically.
Even without cell phones, though, possible causes for plummeting bee populations abound: disappearing habitat, pesticide use, and the rise of the varroa mite, to name but three.
How cell towers cause honeybee hives to collapse
Researcher Daniel Favre and his colleagues performed 83 experiments recording the reaction of honeybees to cell phones in their off state, standby state or active talking state. It turns out that when cell phones are in their "active" state (sending or receiving signals), honeybees are strongly disoriented and suffer from widespread miscommunication that causes them to stop seeking out food and begin swarming. Specifically, their "worker piping" activity increases by 1000 percent (ten times).
As Favre explains in his paper, entitled "Mobile phone-induced honeybee worker piping: worker piping in a bee colony is not frequent, and when it occurs in a colony, that is not in a swarming process, no more than two bees are simultaneously active. The induction of honeybee worker piping by the electromagnetic fields of mobile phones might have dramatic consequences in terms of colony losses due to unexpected swarming.” Favre goes on: "Among other factors such as the varroa mite and pesticides, signals from mobile phones and masts could be contributing to the decline of honeybees around the world. I am calling the international scientific community for more research in this field." Of course, by the time additional studies are done, it may simply be too late. If the honeybee population collapse continues for just a few more years, pollination of the global food supply may become nearly impossible. That will lead to the great die-off of human beings. Funny how that works, isn't it? Imagine the narrative of future historians: Humans multiplied and expanded their cell phone towers to the point where the pollinators all died. Then human civilization collapsed and the cell towers went silent. Within a decade, the honeybees were once again prolific and healthy... Honeybees don't need humans, you see. But we need them. www.sfgate.com |
Replies
It's true, bee population has been declining, Albert Einstein said: "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live."
You've got a point too @Tyler, we can be in control of our world choosing a life of abundance and free of any lack, wether is food or clean environment, but we need each other, we need to work together to accomplish this, lately I've been learning that we can't isolate in our own little sacred corner of the world all the time.
But, if I had the choice, I probably wouldn't have a Cell phone, I hardly use mine honestly.
I think I will get rid of it someday, but in the mean time, I think they should engineer a cell phone that doesn't interfere with the sensitive frequencies of the Bees.
Bees are SO important to our Eco-System....
We really need to have more RESPECT for them, it's not just about us, we have to be aware of he we affect our surroundings.
It's the polite and aware thing to do!!!!
Great post.... thank you!