Cell phone signals responsible for Bee decline?

Seeing as we all here rely on these little miracles of pollination, I'm sad to share this recent development in the search for the case of CCD (colony Collapse Disorder).

News article link

http://www.naturalnews.com/032417_honeybees_population_collapse.html

Study entitled "Mobile phone-induced honeybee worker piping" by the Laboratory of Cellular Biotechnology (LBTC), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
(EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

http://www.kokopelli.asso.fr/documentation/favre.pdf

Study Abstract

The worldwide maintenance of the honeybee has major ecological, economic, and political implications. In the present study, electromagnetic waves originating from mobile phones were tested for potential effects on honeybee behavior. Mobile phone handsets were placed in the close vicinity of honeybees.
The sound made by the bees was recorded and analyzed. The audiograms and spectrograms revealed that active mobile phone handsets have a dramatic impact on the behavior of the bees, namely by inducing the worker piping signal. In natural conditions, worker piping either announces the swarming process of the bee colony or is a signal of a disturbed bee colony.


After reading the study, sadly this makes the most sense in regards to the (Western) worldwide uniformity of CCD. Although I'm sure it is a combination of varying factors that all ultimately stem from a "modern" lifestyle breaking from nature.

My fear is that cell phone technology is far too profitable and mainstream for society to turn around and make a compassionate U-turn to save the bees. If the warnings in this study are buried and not heeded, humanity is in for a serious wake up call. Here, we all know how important bees are to the food supply. They pollinate some 70% of the global food supply. But will governments care when a multi billion $$ industry is on the line?

I read part of this study report last night. The data was collected in Germany in 2006. Scientifically there were several things wrong, but essentially, as part of the study there were actual base units of phones installed into the hive. To make a long story short, the bees being directly effected by the EM radiation had a 21% decline return rate to the hive. There did not appear anywhere in the study report a statement that cell phones are killing honeybees.
I believe there is validity to this study in that yes, the bees activities disrupted by the EM radiation of the unit, however it is disturbing that reports such as this (that broke into the news via the tabloid Daily Mail), really serves to divert us from the very serious issues effecting the the bees, resulting in this years shocking 35%-50% decline in colonies. Insecticides, GMO crops, herbicide use, destruction of habitat, poor nutrition from single food source (mobile pollinators to almond groves, etc), loss of diversification of food sources, mites, viruses, mice...
But seriously, it is not just cell phones... I know I get irritated when my cell phone rings too....
My belief is that EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED, I do choose to not use insecticides regularly, and if I do I follow label directions. I do choose to buy non GMO products, I do try to contientious for the survival of the honey bee, as we are truly dependent upon these creatures.

Camprn,

Great points. It must be an accumulation of factors. The study itself does not seem to attempt disinformation but perhaps the Daily Mail interpretation alluded to that but I have not read that story. The study seems well intentioned, hopefully media sources won't publish this as THE definitive cause, more-so a contributing factor. I will look and read it again and see where it seems to lack in scientific terms. Of course, it does not say directly that it causes Bee death but that is an inference that can be made by extension to their findings. Some have also suggested that the Bees delicate navigational systems might be affected to the point that they also can't find their way home and die from exhaustion quietly away from the hive.

That is certainly in the realms of possibility as I've also recently read that the magnetic movement of the poles and the changes in the Earths magnetic field have forced some airports (more recently Tampa) to temporarily shut down runways and actually repaint them in different locations as the planes navigational systems (relying on GPS) could have guided planes to land off the runways !

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110107/breaking/110109863

Something is going on, that's for sure. Do all these recent worldwide animal die-offs tie into this theory? One things for sure, we are certainly due a pole-shift

Hopefully, this will be a segue into other such similar studies. Some things are way out of our control but this study certainly does not give the green light to continue using pesticides, GMO and other mitigating factors.

Reading back this post, I'm quite certain I've hijacked my own thread regarding pole-shifts so back specifically to the Bees... thankfully, I am seeing quite healthy Bee activity so far in my back yard. Long may that continue.

LOL, I know what you mean ... There is a lot more of this study report I need to read, with 83 experiments... But the problem is huge and multifaceted and there certainly is no one answer yet... There is a lot of work going on now to try to figure it out, I just hope we have solid answers coming and effective changes soon...

one of the things I found troubling was that the bees chosen for the different experiments were workers trapped at random, they could have been of varying ages, but I did not see anything (I may have missed it) to take into account the short life cycle of the honey bee. When they are workers they are nearing the end of their life cycle... and there are many reasons a worker does not return to the hive. The piping was interesting though. Thanks for posting the OP! No worries about hijacking the thread with other interesting stuff, it happens all the time

and lets not forget this


“Clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees.”
Leaked Environmental Protection Agency Internal Memo
Dated November 2, 2010
and still the EPA is granting Bayer extentions to use this pestiside without the required testing. This product has already been banned in western euro. Due to bee pop. decline.
Some of the evidence we are seeing now is that clothianidin accumulates in the soil with successive plantings of treated seed, which is common in the corn belt and is very persistent – has a very long half-life. Now the question becomes: Has the soil itself become a toxic agent? Not just the plants.
I realy think these neo-nicotinoid insecticides are the single most destructive element of CCD. I could not agree more that we are all interconnected and part of a vast web of life. We need to do all we can to help the envroment, by doing so we are in fact helping our selves. I know that is why alot of us have started gardening in the first place.