this guy? 
or this guy?
Posted on 04/23/2007 1:11:12 AM PDT by Tulsa Ramjet
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Go to work, come home.
Go to work, come home.
Go to work -- and vanish without a trace.
Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why.
The phenomenon was first noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees have also been reported in Europe and Brazil.
Commercial beekeepers would set their bees near a crop field as usual and come back in two or three weeks to find the hives bereft of foraging worker bees, with only the queen and the immature insects remaining. Whatever worker bees survived were often too weak to perform their tasks.
If the bees were dying of pesticide poisoning or freezing, their bodies would be expected to lie around the hive. And if they were absconding because of some threat -- which they have been known to do -- they wouldn't leave without the queen.
Since about one-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination and most of that is performed by honeybees, this constitutes a serious problem, according to Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service.
"They're the heavy lifters of agriculture," Pettis said of honeybees. "And the reason they are is they're so mobile and we can rear them in large numbers and move them to a crop when it's blooming."
Honeybees are used to pollinate some of the tastiest parts of the American diet, Pettis said, including cherries, blueberries, apples, almonds, asparagus and macadamia nuts.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
What if it turns out that cell phones are killing bees?
I mean what will they do? What can they do?
Will be interesting to see if the “global warming celebrities” will jump on this bandwagon. They damned sure won’t give up their cell phones, just like they won’t give up their SUVs and private jets, yet they will preach and expect the rest of us to do without cell phones.
it’s strange, but another thing to consider is changes in the earth’s magnetic field. If bees navigate by the magnetic field, and it changes, that could be a factor. Also, has there not been a kick up in sunspot activity which can affect the earth’s magnetic field?
Also, the data on magnetic field changes suggest the early stages of a pole flip. The data shows these changes to be “regional”. This would explain the broad but inconsistent collapse of hives.
How do bees navigate and know where "home" is? Is something we've created, bio-food or pesticide, interfering with their homing system?
Cell phones aren't new, but there are more towers around and, with more and more cell phones in use, we may have hit a sort of critical mass of frequency interference for the bees.
Have the africanized honey bees been similarly affected?
I think it is because the DEMS took Congress.
Last I learned in school, bees navigate by polarized sunlight.
Microwaves can do serious damage to tissue, but it has to be strong enough and long enough to do it. If the cell towers are the cause, maybe they like hovering near the antennas to get some type of buzz (pun intended).
Sounds like a good experiment.
I think they are on strike. Maybe we should fire them all and hire “replacement” bees - yeah, that’ll teach’em...
I know what you’re talking about, “Polar Shift”, read the book by Cliv Cussler.
One teensy weensy problem with that theory. 800 Mhz RF has been around a LOT longer than cellular......
this guy? or this guy?
Bees wings are made of chitin around which static charges are bled off as the bee flies....micro wave energy perhaps or even the energy from cell towers may be playing havok there!
It might be the bees are looking for the pods of pilot whales that keep going ashore for no reason. A coming together of a mass life-form, mind melt. You know, the thing that Spock did with that rock that was in silent pain. Maybe bees are from whales? Like Gary Sinese said in that Mars movie, “They’re us. We’re them.” Whew....man I’m bored.
Not exactly. Specifically, frequencies used are 220 Mhz for SMR. 825-895 Mhz for cellular and 1750-1970 for PCS with some extensions to 2.3 Ghz for PCS. And, the ERP, or Effective Radiated Power, has come down about 70% since everything went digital. I doubt this is the cause.
REVELATIONS 6:
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
*tightens tinfoil hat*
Or UFO abductions.
It is praying mantises. We have them in Iowa but they were not here 20 years ago.
Happened to a mobile home I once owned. We sprayed and plugged the holes and no more bee hotel........
Vicious critters, those praying mantis! I once saw one take down a hummingbird! Most amazing thing I think I've ever seen in my back yard....
Read an article, listed on drudge that claims it is all of our cell phones killing off the bees. They can;t navigate.
Who knew FR had a resident beekeeper! What an interesting and informative post! Thanks for sharing and may your colonies be tracheal mite-free!
I hate it when Reuters and CNN get to spread around even more Urban Myth.
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