Bees and cell phones

[DS]

Someone at work brought this up.
Is it true?
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? - Independent Online Edition > Wildlife
I wanna know if it works on wasps

[moreluck]

DS,
Amazingly, I did read about our bee population being down. The bee people report hives with 30-90% less bees now. I didn't read anything about the cell phone connection though.

Keep us posted on the most recent 'buzz'.

[abes]

Something on the news yesterday about the airwaves from cell phones are killing off the bees.

[SeniorGeek]

Originally Posted by DS

Someone at work brought this up.
Is it true?
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? - Independent Online Edition > Wildlife

Is what true? The title of the article is a question, not a statement. The article itself is poorly researched.

The cellphone theory matches some observed behaviour of bees, but does not match the geography of the problem very well.

The spread of the problem looks more like the spread of a pathogen - a virus, parasite or disease of some sort. (There was a big die-off of bees in the pre-cellphone 1970s which followed a similar pattern. It was not as huge or as sudden as the current loss of honeybees. I think the cause was never determined.)

Another factor that is ignored in this article is the increased feeding of high-fructose corn syrup to keep hives alive for the winter. Bees survive better when fed sucrose, but the difference is not huge.

However, there have been changes to high-fructose corn syrup. Sugars from some sources, such as grapes, are known to kill off bees. Has corn been genetically modified in a way that makes the syrup toxic to bees? (Most of the corn crop now grown in the US is genetically modified.)

One thing that shows a lack of research in the article: The Einstein quote "appeared" about 40 years after his death, and has been debunked. It is not found in anything written or recorded during his lifetime. But it keeps getting repeated in "news" articles by people who ostensibly claim to be "journalists".

The article's title is in the form of a question. We do not know what is causing honeybee hives to perish. Cellphone signals may be a factor, but there are many other possibilities.

Originally Posted by DS

I wanna know if it works on wasps

This has been noticed only in honeybees. If it works on wasps, I want a cell tower in my back yard!

[Channahon]

Fungus linked to decline of bees in U.S.


By Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II, Tribune Newspapers:Los Angeles Times; Tribune news services contributed
Published April 26, 2007


A fungus that caused widespread loss of honeybee colonies in Europe and Asia may be playing a crucial role in the phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder that is wiping out bees across the United States, researchers in California said Wednesday.

The new findings represent the first solid evidence pointing to a potential cause of the disorder. But they are "highly preliminary" and from only a few hives in California's Merced County, said Joe DeRisi, a biochemist at the University of California, San Francisco.


Other researchers said Wednesday that they, too, had found the fungus, a single-celled parasite called Nosema ceranae, in affected hives from around the country -- as well as in some hives that have survived. Those researchers also have found two other fungi and a half-dozen viruses in the dead bees.

N. ceranae is "one of many pathogens" in the bees, said entomologist Diana Cox-Foster of Pennsylvania State University. "By itself, it is probably not the culprit ... but it may be one of the key players."

Cox-Foster was one of the organizers of a meeting in Washington this week at which about 60 bee researchers discussed Colony Collapse Disorder.

"We still haven't ruled out other factors, such as pesticides or inadequate food resources following a drought," she said.



Many researchers at the meeting in Washington widely dismissed a report that cell phone towers and radio waves may be to blame for the bees' disappearance. The theory has percolated throughout the Internet, despite repeated denunciations by bee researchers.

[Sammie]

And it's supposedly it's also insects, plants and birds, as well.....

Cell phone tower radiation may be killing plants and animals

[rushfan]

I saw on our local news the extention agent for the USDA said our states population was back to normal. Last year was a different story.
As a side note, I was driving on the freeway to our gateway. I ran into a swarm of bees, what a mess.

As far as cell phone towers killing off species, that's a contentious issue. The damage that radio energy causes depends upon a few factors: Radio Frequency, Power output from the transmitter, and the distance from the transmitter to the subject. I won't go into the boring details.

[DS]

I`m slightly off topic here but its closely related.
For 4 years now we`ve dreaded the coming of the
wasps in late spring.By mid summer,the little bastards had 3 nests in and around our back deck,and one up front in an
evestrough.Instead of killing them this year we`re trying
something I found on the internet.Its called a waspinator
and its simply a fake nest that fools them into thinking that they should find somewhere else to set up housekeeping.
Apparently they are very territorial and know instictively
that building near other nests can lead to conflicts.

heres the website,I`ll keep you posted as to whether or not the "waspinator" works.
The Original Waspinator

[Sammie]

Originally Posted by DS

I`m slightly off topic here but its closely related.
For 4 years now we`ve dreaded the coming of the
wasps in late spring.By mid summer,the little bastards had 3 nests in and around our back deck,and one up front in an
evestrough.Instead of killing them this year we`re trying
something I found on the internet.Its called a waspinator
and its simply a fake nest that fools them into thinking that they should find somewhere else to set up housekeeping.
Apparently they are very territorial and know instictively
that building near other nests can lead to conflicts.

heres the website,I`ll keep you posted as to whether or not the "waspinator" works.
The Original Waspinator

Please do.

Our back yard is wasp city, especially when we BBQ and I'm tired of spending a fortune at the hardware store every summer for wasp killer dealies to hang all over the place!!