Cell phones killing bees?

[arachnocat]

I heard this on the news this morning and thought it was pretty off the wall. The abrupt dissapearance and death of bees is a fairly new phenominon I thought. We've had cell phones and other hi tech devices for years. I don't know where they come up with this stuff.

Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees

Also, if all the bees dissapeared wouldn't other insects be able to pollinate crops? Sure bees are the best pollinators, but this article seems to claim that without bees our civilization would collapse and we would all be doomed, and we're all going to go senile and get cancer from cell phones.

 

[billopelma]

I've been hearing about CCD a lot recently, it's even been covered extensivly in the local newspaper.
If this is being caused by cell communications why did it start here and then spread country to country so abruptly, cell phones are nothing new to these places. That and why would predators then refuse to go near the abandoned hives? Seems a pesticide/chemical link is much more likely.

Bill

 

[Galapoheros]

I usually stay up late. I listen to Coast to Coast sometimes, if the topic doesn't sound too whacko. There is someone named Ed Dames and he is what people call a Remote Viewer, or some might call "crazy". He claims to have been a remote viewer in the military to locate targets for specified reasons. Weird thing is that he predicted this bee decline a few years ago. He says it is because of a change in the light spectrum coming from the sun, the UV spectrum esp. Basically, he said they can't see things they used to see and get lost because they depend on UV light to see. I think I heard him say he thinks they will be extinct in a few years. You can probably find his claim about the bees if you Google his name if that doesn't sound too nutty to you. It's not much nuttier than the cell phone thing.

 

[nepenthes]

billopelma preaty much explained it in a nut shell.

But the UV thing also isnt that far off of an idea. But we do depend quite a bit on Bee's to pollinate things. If the bee's were affected what about other insects. To many variables.

 

[lucanidae]

Colony Collapse Disorder has been around for a long time but has only recently been widely publicized. We do require the bees, other insects absolutley could not take the place of these pollinators, not to mention the introduction and widespread use of Apis mellifera has already done huge amounts of damage to our native pollinator populations. On top of this, some crops are specifically bee pollinated. As for the cell phone idea, I'm not buying it yet.

 

[Taceas]

I don't buy the cell phone theory at all. As has been said, cell phones have been in many of the areas for years that the bee problems are just now starting to explode.

If anything I would put my finger on pesticide use or GMO crops.

We are coming to rely on these things far too much anymore, which is why I try to buy locally grown produce or organic produce without such chemicals. Our area has the highest cancer rates in the nation, and if you look at a map of cancer frequency it overlaps almost exactly with the high amount of farm run off in the water supply. People around here are actually being cautioned not to drink their well water since our water table is so close to the surface its being contaminated with farm chemicals.

I know every year around here there are articles in the paper during the spring of bluebirds and other birds dying. When we lived at our old house, an old farm house that was surrounded on 3 sides by planted fields. Every year after they would do their first spraying of the crops, about a week later I would find dead baby bluebirds in the nest boxes and the parents dead shortly thereafter. It was really depressing. The same happened with robins and the barn swallows, all birds that rely on insect diets.

We are reaping what we've sown. =(

The UV theory is interesting, although I've heard of no changes from the sun. Right now we're in a solar minimum, i.e. no sunspots, but I don't think that affects UV output. What about airborne particulates in the atmosphere, such as pollution? Would that absorb UV rays and prevent some from getting down to the ground?

 

[billopelma]

If it was a UV effect then why do they all disapear so abruptly, and from one hive but other hives in close proximity are unaffected. Seems more like a case of a worker finding a contaminated food source locale then going home and communicating the location to all it's hive mates.
Or alien abduction....

Bill

 

[nepenthes]

It was probably bush.