Cell phones and bee death

Mars Colonist · May 13, 2011

Who is giving up their cell phone to save the bees?

FTA: 'So, what about a cell phone signal makes bees suicidally crazy? As Favre’s report explains: “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.”'

So.. can you disperse a bee colony by leaving a cell phone near one, and just keep calling?

tweak'e · May 14, 2011

its a load of crap.

my background is with TV reception. most hive locations have far higher radiation from from TV transmitters (and pager systems, RT/CB) than they do from cell phone towers and that been going on for a far longer time. not to mention CCD is not occurring in countries where cell phones and other transmitters are common.

fatbloke · May 14, 2011

tweak'e said:
its a load of crap.

my background is with TV reception. most hive locations have far higher radiation from from TV transmitters (and pager systems, RT/CB) than they do from cell phone towers and that been going on for a far longer time. not to mention CCD is not occurring in countries where cell phones and other transmitters are common.

Concur there. In a former life my world was military comms, which is why I know that RF and other magnetic emissions are harmful, but the qualification is about proportion.

Kids get greater exposure every time their parents reheat a meal in a microwave oven than they do from a cell tower.

The US seems to have more CCD than Europe (specifically the UK) and we have a much higher density of cell towers.

Of course, nothing should be completely discounted, but I'd suggest that the causes are likely to be from other (chemical ?) sources.

dave_witt · May 16, 2011

A couple of the Asatru groups I'm in keep reposting this story without backing anything up or actually doing some research into it. It's kinda getting a bit annoying at this point.

kudapucat · May 19, 2011

My scientist contacts tell me that this story is based on some dubious research, and that theconclusions drawn are weak, and in some cases not based on any known research.
As the story's not been published anywhere reputable, I've been informed that I should take it as complete BS until proven otherwise.

wayneb · May 19, 2011

kudapucat said:
My scientist contacts tell me that this story is based on some dubious research, and that theconclusions drawn are weak, and in some cases not based on any known research.

I think that tweak'e put it more succinctly!

Zem · May 20, 2011

this kinda reminds me of a story I found and posted here last year (to a similar reception) the points about the phones dispersing hives make for an interesting hypothesis but CCD is far too prevalent to be caused by such direct contact with phones. They need to do more study that relates to real life proximity to cell phones or cell towers before we can draw a real conclusion from this.

Not saying I rule it out, but these poor research techniques and sensationalist news articles every 6 months dont make the cell phone camp of research look credible, they are hurting themselves here...

kudapucat · May 22, 2011

wayneb said:
I think that tweak'e put it more succinctly!

This came up recently amongst my friends on facebook. I apologise for not seeing that the thread had been succintly terminated.

However, in my obtuse and verbose way, I found this site I was sent to be extremely informative regarding how this BS has been reported. It is, I do apologise, even more verbose than my previous comments.

http://cleantechnica.com/2011/05/12/are-cell-phone-killing-bees-how-the-false-meme-spread/

Chevette Girl · May 22, 2011

Thanks, Kudapucat, I'll post that link to FB next time someone I know helps perpetuate the garbage...

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