"In 1974, the Russian researchers Eskov and Sapozhnikov found that bees generate electromagnetic signals with a modulation frequency between 180 and 250 Hz when they do their communications dances. (It is important to note that our GSM mobile system is modulated with 217 Hz). Hungry bees react to those frequencies by erect-ing their antennae [8]. Warnke reported that the communication impulses of the antennae when touched by a fellow bee can be measured with an oscillograph [9]."
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/papers/bigbeedeath_0407.pdf Mobile phone towers a threat to honey bees: study
August 31, 2009
Honeybees on flowers outside the Presidential Palace in New Delhi. The electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phone towers and cellphones can pose a threat to honey bees, a study published in India has concluded
An experiment conducted in the southern state of Kerala found that a sudden fall in the bee population was caused by towers installed across the state bycellphone companies to increase their network.
The electromagnetic waves emitted by the towers crippled the "navigational skills" of the worker bees that go out to collect nectar from flowers to sustain bee colonies, said Dr. Sainuddin Pattazhy, who conducted the study, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
He found that when a cell phone was kept near a beehive, the worker bees were unable to return, leaving the hives with only the queens and eggs and resulting in the collapse of the colony within ten days.
Over 100,000 people in Kerala are engaged in apiculture and the dwindling worker bee population poses a threat to their livelihood. The bees also play a vital role in pollinating flowers to sustain vegetation.
If towers and mobile phones further increase, honey bees might be wiped out in 10 years, Pattazhy said.
(c) 2009 AFP
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