Are mobile phones to blame for the decline in bees?

Mobile phones could be the blame to the mysterious global decline in bees, a new scientific study has revealed.

According to Favre, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, phone signals may confuse bees so much that they become disoriented before finally dropping dead. To show this, the research firm placed active mobile handsets underneath a beehive. The bees went on to make noises associated with a distress as soon as the phones were engaged, and still showed “signs of disturbance” up to 12 hours after the initial experiment.

While it’s unlikely that the average person will be using their mobile next to a beehive, the results of the tests imply that sustained exposure to the electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phones can eventually cause bee colonies to break up and die. Favre explains: “The induction of honeybee worker piping by the electromagnetic fields of mobile phones might have dramatic consequences in terms of colony losses due to unexpected swarming.”

According to Fast Company, a similar report from 2008 gave corresponding results, revealing that bees won’t come back to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Still, it’s unfair to place the blame for the recent decline in the the bee population solely on mobile phones, with neither study concluding  that mobile phones were deadly for the furry little creatures.

[Source: Fast Company]