Mobiles 'not affecting bees' (From Watford Observer)

Mobiles 'not affecting bees'

9:00am Wednesday 18th April 2007

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BEEKEEPERS in Hertfordshire have expressed doubt over claims that mobile phones could be the cause of thousands of bees disappearing from their hives.

Bees play a vital role in both agriculture and horticulture and have started to mysteriously vanish.

Some scientists believe that signals from mobiles are interfering with the bees natural internal sat-nav and knocking them off course, leaving them unable to reach home.

In the US, the commercial bee population has declined by two thirds. The phenomenon has been named Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) this is where nearly all the bees in a hive suddenly desert it.

Geoff Emmerson, Hertfordshire Beekeepers Association (Welwyn Division), said: "I don't know whether mobiles are affecting bees in anyway because I've not heard anything about the problem here, but when you are taught beekeeping you are told not to put them under powerlines because it can affect their sense of direction, it's an age old fact so I suppose mobiles could cause some effect."

Hertfordshire Beekeepers Association county secretary, Helen Irvin, said: "Bees are very clever and take specific flight paths to find food, maybe mobiles affect their direction but mobiles have been around for many years and all of this CCD is quite recent.

"There is a bigger threat to bees out there - the verroa mite is killing thousands of bees.

"It lives off of the bee and destroys their immune system and can take only three months to destroy an entire colony."

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