More Scientific Studies Indicate That Cell Phones are Killing Bees Read more: It's Official- Cell P

[gwoman]

by Lori Zimmer, 05/11/11

Comments

[swordage]

Well, the source of your source (oh, Inhabitat, you are so fanciful) says this:

Around 20 to 40 minutes after the phones were activated, the bees began to emit "piping" calls - a series of high pitched squeaks that announce the start of swarming.

Within two minutes of the phone call ending, the worker bees calmed down.

In the study, the bees did not swarm - even after 20 hours' exposure to mobile phone signals. [...] The study did not show that mobile phones were deadly for bees, [Dr Favre reports in the bee keeping journal Apidologie.]. [...] British bee expert Norman Carreck of Sussex University said: 'It's an interesting study but it doesn't prove that mobile phones are responsible for colony collapse disorder. If you physically knock a hive, or open one up to examine it, it has the same result.

'And in America many cases of colony collapse disorder have taken place in remote areas far from any mobile phone signals.'

[teal_deer]

So as usual, idiot journalists not bothering to read the whole study and randomly deciding that things correlate :|

[fallen_scholar]

I blame those well-meaning Luddites who start up websites like Inhabitat, not to mention the vast numbers of pseduo-skeptics who are desperate for an answer like this.

[technocratic]

I'll certainly want to see some further data before I subscribe to this idea. But it's interesting.

[stellar_kar]

I thought this was debunked? NM I see the first comment. At least I hope it's not a factor because as important as bees are, I doubt most of the public would give up using their cells.

[gmonkey42]

Wow. If this is correct then it really worries me because there's no way Americans are going to tolerate any legislation restricting cell phone use for the sake of some bugs - when John McCain was campaigning, he specifically brought up research on bees as an example of NSF wasting money. Never mind that agriculture depends on bees. I hope the study is not correct; if it is, we're screwed.

[gmonkey42]

NVM, I should have read comments first!

[i_like_neon_ice]

Well in addition to the fact that it didn't kill the bees or cause them to swarm, how many people are making calls right next to a bee hive? I would like to see data on the long-wave frequencies, whatever they may be, and their effects on the bees' communications and behavior. And maybe repeating this with another social insect as well.

Not buying this study. But doesn't rule out the possibility of the bee decline being caused by something similar to this...

[fenris_lorsrai]

Seriously, who stands next to a hive? A working hive is actually pretty damn loud. Not to mention most people don't WANT to stand next to one.