I read an article that really disturbed me over this past weekend. It concerned a new study that has been released showing that cell phone signals and bees do not mix well.
Basically, analysts activated their cell phones in close proximity to bee populations and took note of the effects. Bees communicate with sound and when the cell phones were active, they began to make what is known to be a “distressing” noise. Once the cell phone was turned off, the bees continued with the distressing sounds for another 12 hours. The problem is, if the bees stay distressed for long enough, they disband and die.
In the 1980s, we underwent a serious blow to our honeybee population. The cause was a mixture of insecticide use and a bad breakout of parasitic mites. Farmers began resorting to renting bees in order to keep their crops pollinated. The practice of renting bees continues today.
Then, in 2006 and 2007, a phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder” began to occur. Basically, those boxes that were traditionally refilled as the bees returned at the end of each winter remained empty.
The loss of our bees has widespread implications; we need them for pollination. In fact, some plants are entirely dependent upon certain types of bees for survival. Lose the bees and our crops suffer severely.
With this study comes hope. While forming a perimeter around our bees and restricting cell use may not solve the whole problem, it can slow it down and save some of our still existing hives.