I heard that cell phones are killing off bees?

Question

My neighbor told me today that our cell phone frequencies (i think that's what he said) are the reason there aren't that many bees out this year. We live in Ohio, and now that he mentioned it, I really haven't seen any bees. Is this a bunch of BS, or is it real?

Answer 1

has to do weather.

Answer 2

aww poor bees i think he is right

Answer 3

It's true.The frequencies produced by the cell-phone distract the bees and they can't fly back to where the farmers keep them .The bees are important because they not only produce honey and wax,they also help farmer and fruit-grower by pollinating crops and fruit-trees.Most flowers are dependant upon bees of one kind or another for  carrying pollen from the anthers.of one flower to the stigmas of other  flowers.Many fruit trees will not produce fruit abundantly unless bees are present to pollinate them.Examples are almond,cherry ,pear,plum ,apple and peach trees.Among the many seed crops that require the presence of bees are alfafa,clover,pumpkin,sunflower,sweet clover and vetch. Hence it's true that there'll be a disaster in this world if bees are wiped out off this earth.Human beings are doing all sorts of things to bring an end to this world,aren't they?

Answer 4

Something is causing the bees not to be able to find their way back to their hives. It isn't certain yet, but one possibility is that our cell phone frequencies interfere with their ability to find their hives. I saw this on Jim Lehrer's show on PBS.

Answer 5

the waves givin off mess witht eh bees natural nav. systams killing then off by makeing then get lost its all real

Answer 6

I haven't heard that, but my ap environmental teacher said that there were a significant loss of bees this year (which isn't good because our food web depends on them, obviously for pollen and such. They are also an indicator species which is a warning sign) but the cause for the disappearance of bees is unknown.

This is really interesting, but I think there would have to be more than just cell phone frequencies to kill off such a drastic number of bees in such a short period of time. The changing climate may have a factor to do with this as well. I think right now, there's not enough evidence for it but perhaps later on we'll find out!

Answer 7

There are many theories concerning the collapse of the bee hives.  One idea is that the cell phone frequencies disrupt the bees and they cannot find their way back to the colony.  This is idea was advanced on Coast to Coast Am with George Noory.  

http://www.coasttocoastam.com

Another is that certain pesticides are having an effect on them.  Researchers in Florida believe that it is the pesticides and are doing research to prove this theory.

I also heard that the bees are being "raptured"

Take your pick.

Answer 8

mmm sounds a bit crazy lol

Answer 9

It sure is a plausible hypothisis, but i doubt it will prove to be accurate.

why?

because organic farms are having far less problems with their bees. it is probably some new components of a farm chemical that is causing them problems, such as a new herbicide that is harmful to them, and no one knows it YET.

Answer 10

come to my house I have like 4 bee hives.  i have nightmares about bees.  im gonna start using my celly around the house more...

Answer 11

Wow - I had NO idea cell phones were that small now ;-)

Actually, from what I've been reading, there is some indication that a bacterial or viral agent is the culprit in the recent die-off of bees.  If cell phones were the problem, there's have been no bees in the US and many other countries for a couple of decades now!

Answer 12

i heard that too

Answer 13

I have also heard this vicious rumour but do not fear! i have some interesting statistics which may benifit you!

- 1 in a hundred thoudand bees would die before it got back to it's hive anyway (see explination from previous commenter)

-  bees leave a scent which destroys 1 in 4 cell phones a day- now who's at fault?

Answer 14

its a WHOLE bunch of BS!!! maybe many bees didnt survive the winter!!! ya know?? im sorry but thats the dumbest thing ive ever heard!! so no its not true

Answer 15

I think it is the other way around.The cell phones are killing off humans,as many accidents are caused by a driver talking on a cell phone while driving and hasn't got his mind on the road ahead.

Answer 16

I live in Iowa, and there was just something on the news about this.  So true

Answer 17

That's the buzz!

Answer 18

It is true. Bees use a certiain frequency to find their way back to the hive. But with all the frequencies incoming from cell phone they sometimes get lost and die before they make it home.

Answer 19

According to what I have seen on the nature channel, this is true--I don't know how-- but this is really happening and I wish I know WHY and how we can stop this---without the bees- we are destined for death-- they pollinate all our foods .

Answer 20

The bees use a certain frequency to navigate. Cell phones sometimes use the frequency too. Therefore, the bees get lost while out to find pollen to make honey. This explains why there are  less bees, and  a lower production of honey.

Answer 21

I heard that aliens abducted my neighbor.

Answer 22

That's a new one!

Cell phones operate at a radio frequency that has no effect on bees or any other insects.

There may be two effect of cell phones on bees.

1. There are so many cell phone towers worldwide that there must be many that have displaced bees from their natural habitat or removed the flowers that they gather food from.

2. People who use cell phones in there day to day activities are not paying attention to what is going on around them. They may inadvertantly harm bees, their habitats, or their souces of food.

Answer 23

There definitely is a decline in bee populations which the agricultural community is calling "Colony Collapse Disorder".  There's an article about the cell phone connection at:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/56901...

but I heard that it has more to do with crops that are genetically altered to be pest resistent in combination with "bee keepers" who travel around the country with bees in semitrucks who weaken the bees health and collect bee-killing mites by traveling too much.  

The "cell phone" connection seems a bit odd since cell phones have been around for a while and the colony collapse is pretty new.

Answer 24

Read some beekeeper magazines and they will tell you your answer.

My guess is new pesticides are getting concentrated in the hives and they are dying.

Answer 25

There is substancial evidence that this is true. (I also live in Ohio.) Considering the short time cell phones have been in use and the amount of bees we've lost, it's a scary probability. Pesticides are also figuring into the mix. Honey bees are credited for pollinating about one-fifth of our food. I don't know if that percentage is true, but they do pollinate almost all our fruits, not to mention the making of honey. Expect to see high costs in whole fruits, fruit drinks, jellies and jams, etc.

Answer 26

Yes your neighbour is  right. The radiation from our cell phones causes bees to die.

Answer 27

scientists aren't sure yet, but it's a possibility.

Answer 28

There are a lot of missing bees not just in Ohio, but all over the world, due to a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder.  Cell phones have been speculated to be the cause, but have not been determined to be the culprit.  There are some interesting videos on YouTube about this that you absolutely must watch; see below.  This is a SERIOUS concern because there is simply some crops that cannot be farmed without bees.

Answer 29

cell phones permanantly alter brain activity in children there are studies that show before and after mri's. also they cause some type of radiation sickness, email me and I'll forward the study to you. genetically altered vegetables and seeds are killing bees, not cell phones

there are some type of strips you can attach to your phone to neutralize these harmful emissions from your phone,I heard about it on the aware show by lisa garr on www.kpfk.org

Answer 30

There’s still no concrete evidence about what is killing the millions and billions of bees around the country, but there are a lot of guesses.

The phenomenon is recent, dating back to autumn, when beekeepers along the east coast of the US started to notice the die-offs. It was given the name of fall dwindle disease, but now it has been renamed to reflect better its dramatic nature, and is known as colony collapse disorder.

It is swift in its effect. Over the course of a week the majority of the bees in an affected colony will flee the hive and disappear, going off to die elsewhere. The few remaining insects are then found to be enormously diseased - they have a “tremendous pathogen load”, the scientists say. But why? No one yet knows.

… The disease showed a completely new set of symptoms, “which does not seem to match anything in the literature”, said the entomologist.

… the few bees left inside the hive were carrying “a tremendous number of pathogens” - virtually every known bee virus could be detected in the insects, she said, and some bees were carrying five or six viruses at a time, as well as fungal infections. Because of this it was assumed that the bees’ immune systems were being suppressed in some way. - The Independent

There are as many theories as there are members of the panel, but Mr Hackenberg strongly suspects that new breeds of nicotine-based pesticides are to blame.

“It may be that the honeybee has become the victim of these insecticides that are meant for other pests,” he said. “If we don’t figure this out real quick, it’s going to wipe out our food supply.”

Just a few miles down the sunlit road, it is easy to find farmers prepared to agree with his gloomy assessment.

… Dennis van Engelsdorp, a Pennsylvania-based beekeeper and leading researcher… is adamant that it is too early to pin the blame on insecticides.”We have no evidence to think that that theory is more right than any other…” - BBC

Urban sprawl and farming also have taken away fields of clover and wildflowers, as well as nesting trees.

Pesticides and herbicides used in farming and on suburban lawns can weaken or kill bees.

Caron said a new class of pesticides used on plants, called neonicotinoids, don’t kill bees but hamper their sense of direction. That leaves them unable to find their way back to their hives.

… Because these bees aren’t returning to their hives, researchers don’t have a lot of evidence to study.

Those dead bees that have been found nearby have only deepened the mystery.

“They are just dirty with parts and pieces of various diseases,” said Jim Tew, a beekeeping expert with the OSU Extension campus in Wooster. “It looks like a general stress collapse.”

Similar disappearances have occurred over time. Tew said he remembers a similar phenomenon in the 1960s. Then, it was called “disappearing disease.”

“It was exactly the same thing,” he said.

But this one, Caron said, apparently causes hives to collapse at a much quicker rate and is more widespread.

Cobey said it could be from too much of everything: bad weather, chemicals, parasites, viruses.

“If you give them one of these things at a time, they seem to deal with it,” she said. “But all of these things, it’s too hard.

“I think the bees are just compromised. They’re stressed out.” - Columbus Dispatch

Whatever the cause, some farmers are getting desperate, to the point of not bothering to plant their crops.

“The squash crops that we grow have a male and female bloom, and the bee has to visit…to make it pollinate and produce,” he said.

“We’re going to have a hard time finding rental bees to aid in this pollination and if it’s as critical as it looks like it will be, I probably won’t even plant anything this spring.” - BBC

Huge monocrop farming systems and specialisations, and the spread of suburbia across natural habitat, are removing natural diversity. Bees have been lumped together in the millions, in a factory farm type environment not so unlike that of our chickens and other livestock animals. Many of these bees are transported across several states to perform pollinations in orchards and farms around the country. Today they are in contact with substances they shouldn’t have to deal with - pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and pollen from genetically modified crops. Researchers are scrambling to find answers, and as the spring season is upon us, time is running out.

Honey bees, which are not native to the U.S. incidentally (they were imported for crop pollination), are tasked with the pollination of approximately one third of all U.S. crops.

… scientists are very worried, not least because, as there is no obvious cause for the disease as yet, there is no way of tackling it. - The Independent

Answer 31

No.. it's the other way around.  Bees are killing off the cell phones.