Actually this was a problem in europe a few years ago. I am not sure of all the details. As far as I know something similar happend for a year or two and then just stopped. They never figured out what caused it.
This cell phone thing is kind of whacked and a little far fetched but you never know.
I spoke to my mentor last week. In his circle of information the possible problem is nicotine! To many bees are chain smokers ;D
No but seriously, one of the suspect pesticides used to control pests contains some sort of nicotine extract, I think he said nicotoids??? I may have some of my facts mixed up here, I beleive that it is sprayed on the plants. But along the way, termites came into the picture. I'm not sure if they were using the same stuff on the termites or not. Anyways, they found that when the termites came in contact with the nicotoids they could not find their way back to the colony, much like is what is happening to the bees.
It seems to be a big problem in California where maybe they are using this pesticide on trees. In my area most of the crops are corn and beans. As far as I know no local BKer's are seeing this problem. In fact my mentor had a good winter and only lost about 20% of his colonies, he usually expects at least a 30% loss and last year was more like 40%.
He doesn't even have to order packages this year, the girls are doing so well he will undertake the biggest nuc selling endeavour he has ever tried.
But the biggest mystery to me is why nothing moves into the abandoned colonies. An abandoned colony full of brood and honey is a welcome source of food for all kinds of critters. But nothing moves in.