Are Cell Phones Destroying the Bee Population?



Scientists at the Landau University of Koblenz, Germany, discovered that radiation from cell phones can disorient bees, stop their ability to communicate with each other, and lead to the collapse of their colonies:

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive’s inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

And cell phones may be the culprit:

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Why is this serious? Because we depend on bees for our crops:

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world’s crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

Link - Thanks Shara!


Previous Post
Get Neatorama by RSS or email
 Next Post
this post? Please email a friend  +reddit  +SU 
Posted on April 17, 2007 at 2:00 am by Alex
Category: Animal

From our new online store:
» More fun T-shirt designs at Neatorama Online Store

7 comments to "Are Cell Phones Destroying the Bee Population?"

  • Dick Davies
    April 17th, 2007 at 2:11 am

    There’s a dollop of skepticism at : http://instapundit.com/archives2/004182.php

    Then again, Paul noticed the same thing is happening to bumblebees: http://www.breadedcod.com/2007/04/16/92/

    Poor bees. Why can’t wasps be disappearing?

  • CJ Casey
    April 17th, 2007 at 7:42 am

    Where did Einstein say that? I’ve seen it bandied about everywhere but not with a source. And even if he did, well, he was a theoretical physicist. I admire Alan Greenspan a lot, but I’m not really concerned about his opinions of apiary life, either.

  • Justin
    April 17th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

    Hmmm, I’d like to know more specifics on how the test was conducted. Was the cell phone on, for how long, was it receiving phone calls constantly or at all? Was this done in a lab, or outdoors in an uncontrolled area. Also, how close was the cell phone to the bees’ hives, could it have been the proximity to the hive, or maybe the color of the phone.

    The article goes on to mention about the increasing evidence that cell phones are harmful to humans, but all the articles and studies I’ve seen have discounted this.

    It’s clear there is a problem here, but the solution seems unclear. I’m more inclined to think it could be some pesticide that is widely used, than cell phone radiation… Then again, I’m not a bee expert.

  • Justin
    April 17th, 2007 at 5:22 pm

    I’m having trouble finding what scholarly journal if any this study was published in. Does anyone know how I can find the raw data for this study?

  • Justin
    April 17th, 2007 at 5:49 pm

    Ah, I don’t mean to keep spamming, but I found the link (in english too!)
    http://agbi.uni-landau.de/material_download/IAAS_2006.pdf

    It seems to me that the study is so small(I think they only used 8 bee hives, and I think he says some of them weren’t recorded correctly) that a new study should be done using realistic approaches. From what I understand, they took cordless phone base stations and pumped them to full blast and then put them right under or in the bee hive.

    Anyways this study smells a little fishy to me, but I think another larger scale study should be done.

  • Jason
    April 18th, 2007 at 1:46 pm

    CJ–

    Most internet “wisdom” is attributed to either Einstein (if it’s pseudoscience) or the Dalai Lama (if it’s pseudospritual).

    –Albert Einstein

  • James
    May 4th, 2007 at 3:58 pm

    Bees are dying because of a fungus, part of a normal ebb and flow of the crops. Not cell phones. Europe has the highest concentration of cellphone usage in the world and their bees are not dying off like ours are.

    Also, honeybees only make up for -one third- of pollination in the united states. We’re not going to be in much trouble if every honeybee were to die off tomorrow.

Want your own avatar? Get one for free at Gravatar!


Neatorama Comment Policy
You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. We don't censor comment based on your point of view but comments that are abusive, use excessive profanity, or contain off-topic links may get edited or deleted. On some posts, it may take up several minutes for you comment to show up.


Stay updated on the comments in this post with Comment RSS