Establishing Why Bees Die Off

So in effect the article says that the scientists don't know what is the cause of colony collapse. Quite different from what the headline suggests.

I wonder why scientists continue to refuse one external stressor that has been growing in particular in these recent years: Multiple cross-confounding electromagnetic signals from the ever increasing forest of cell phone repeaters and similar emitters.

If it is not one poison or one parasite, perhaps there is something that weakens and/or disorients bees to the point of succumbing to a number of stressors that they can normally deal with, but can no longer in the face of added electromagnetic pollution.

Well I'm surprised that Frances Ratniks doesn't mention the negative effects from mobile phone masts.
She has been sent the scientific evidence.
Mobile phone masts are all over the world. Also the effects of HAARP, where the power war tripled in 2006 and a HAARP scientist saying they have accidently damaged the bees!
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/issues/emr.php?id=bees

* The Kompetenz initiative writes urgently to bee associations and beekeepers and explains about EM fields and bee colony collapse
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/niemr/kompetenz_beekeepers.pdf

* Birds, Bees and Mankind: Destroying nature by ‘electrosmog’, Dr Ulrich Warnke. A very significant researched publication, and presented at a conference at the Royal Society, Sept 2008..
http://www.broschuerenreihe.net/international/bees-birds-and-mankind/index.html

* HAARP Transmissions May Accidentally be Jamming Bees Homing Ability, Guy Cramer, 2007
http://www.hyperstealth.com/haarp/index.htm

Sad to say, mobile phone radiation can explain all of the effects, but are we prepared to give up our mobile phones to save them? I think very few of us would so we must think carefully about this and see what we can do to make the radiation less damaging. We already know enough about the mechanism to make a stab at this. Perhaps Francis could take this on board. The problem as I see it is as follows.

Mobile phone radiation can be linked to colony collapse disorder.
Bee colonies are dying mysteriously all over the developed world. Often their navigation systems fail and they do not return to the hive after collecting pollen and nectar, which causes colony collapse disorder. Their immune systems also fail and they become unusually susceptible to pathogens. Both of these effects can be linked by plausible mechanisms to the electromagnetic radiation from mobile telecommunications

The loss of the bees will result in many deaths.
If the decline of the bees continues, the effects on agriculture and even the continued existence of the human race will be devastating. Many of our crops depend on bee pollination, and the remainder cannot provide a balanced diet. If we are forced to rely on wind pollinated crops, many people will die a painful death from malnutrition in a matter of months.

Wind pollinated crops cannot make up for the loss of the bees.
While it is true that the bulk of our staple foods come from wind-pollinated cereals that do not rely on bees, these do not support the nitrogen-fixing bacteria needed for sustainable agriculture, nor do they provide an adequate balanced diet. In particular, they are almost totally lacking in vitamin C, which is essential to prevent scurvy. Scurvy is a fatal disease in which the body is unable to synthesise the collagen needed to make connective tissue and literally begins to fall apart. The teeth fall out, the joints deteriorate and it leads to a slow and very painful death. Bee-pollinated crops are the main natural sources of vitamin C. Although some species can self-pollinate or be propagated vegetatively, these are of necessity inbred and lack genetic diversity. Consequently, they will be less able to adapt to changing environmental conditions, including climate change and newly-evolved pathogens. They cannot be expected to last us for long.

Electromagnetic radiation is the most likely cause of bee loss
Whatever is causing the decline in the bee population in developed countries, it is likely to be man-made. Various possibilities have been mooted, including pesticides and other agrichemicals, but the front runner is likely to be the effects of the radio-frequency radiation from mobile telecommunications on their cryptochrome pigments.

Cryptochromes
The cryptochromes are a family of pigments found in virtually all animal and plants. The earliest forms (which we now call photolyase) absorb light and use its energy to repair damaged DNA. More recent cryptochromes evolved to actually measure light and tell the organism whether it is night or day so that it can adapt its metabolism accordingly. Still later versions became an integral part of the “biological clock”, now present in virtually all living cells, which regulates their endogenous circadian rhythms. These rhythms control many aspects of metabolism and allow cells and organisms to anticipate the coming of dawn and dusk so that they can prepare themselves in advance for the new conditions.

Cryptochromes are used for animal navigation
Animals that use the sun for navigation have extremely accurate cryptochrome-based biological clocks that enable them to compensate for its changing position throughout the day. Animals that navigate using the earth’s magnetic field also use cryptochromes to sense the direction of the field. Cryptochrome can detect the direction of the field because it uses energy to flip an electron between two parts of the molecule to generate a pair of magnetic free radicals. The rate at which the electron returns depends on the direction of the earth’s field relative to the molecule, and therefore gives an indication of the direction of the field. This sort of cryptochrome occurs in the eye and enables the animal to superimpose the direction of the magnetic field on its visual field as a “heads-up” display, which is ideal for navigation.


Electromagnetic fields disrupt cryptochrome-based magnetic navigation.
Ritz et al. (Nature, Vol. 429, pp177-180, 13th May 2004) showed that even weak radio frequency electromagnetic fields completely prevented robins orienting for navigation in a steady magnetic field, and the same seems likely to be true for bees. Based on quantum mechanics, they estimate that the most likely frequencies to be effective fall in the range between 0.1 and 10 MHz. This is well below the microwave frequencies used to carry mobile phone and Wi-Fi signals, but they are nevertheless generated when the microwaves are modulated to carry information.

Solar navigation may also be affected.
The cryptochrome-based biological clock in insects is also affected by magnetic fields (Yoshii et al. http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000086 ); so it is therefore likely that the bee’s ability to navigate by the sun is also compromised. The radiation from mobile phone masts, handsets and similar wireless devices may therefore disrupt bee navigation, both by the sun and by the earth’s magnetic field. This may prevent foraging bees returning to the hive and result in colony collapse disorder.

Humans may be affected too
Even humans seem to be affected since people living near mobile phone masts frequently report poor sleep at night and tiredness during the day, which is an indication of disrupted or weakened circadian rhythms. It could also account for a weakened immune system and reduced resistance to pathogens, since the immune system is also under the control of the circadian rhythm (Willard L. Koukkari and Robert B. Sothern. “Introducing Biological Rhythms”, pp 426 – 525. Springer, 2006. ISBN 13: 078-1-4020-3691-0).

Why circadian rhythms control the immune system
An important function of endogenous circadian rhythms is to make the best use of limited bodily resources. To do this, they divert them from physical activity during the day to the immune system and the repair of damage at night. If they are disrupted, or their amplitude reduced by electromagnetic radiation, nothing they control can ever function at full power. Consequently, the bees may die seemingly of other causes, including attack by pathogens to which they might otherwise be resistant.

You most certainly are on the right track. I have been researching this for 3 yrs, I have some of the answers. All I need are some infected hives. Can you help?

Regards Bob Usher

EMFs from mobile phone technology and others, as well as GMO food are IMHO to blame. Those little bees aren't able to cope with.

It is said if the bees leave the planet, mankind would have four years left! - Albert EInstein

Now will people throw away their mobile phone? Questionable, if you see all those highly addicted mobile phone junkies almost everywhere these days...

In the USA, the bulk of colonies showing symptoms of CCD are well outside the reception area for cell phone service, so any claims blaming cell phones are made by people who both do not under stand electromagnetic radiation, and do not understand where and how bees are kept.

Further, there is no evidence that bees use any magnetic fields in navigation. The most compelling proof of this is the work of Prof Towne of U. Kutztown (in PA, USA), where bees under overcast skies show that they could be fooled by a mirror-imaged of a "remembered" terrain, yet corrected their error as the sun emerged from clouds.
(See http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/211/23/3729.pdf "The connection between landscapes and the solar ephemeris in honeybees" Towne & Moscrip The Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 3729-3736 ) and other papes by Towne on this subjet.

The actual proximate cause of "CCD" has nothing to do with cell phones, and everything to do with invasive species and World Trade. Pathogens and diseases from Asia, such as Nosema ceranae and several obscure viruses combine with Nosema apis to create the symptoms called "CCD". There's no need for magic, cell phones, or pesticides.

Those near New York City can attend free lectures, and speak with experts to learn to differ between science and nonsense as applied to bees. Lectures and workshops are given by the Gotham City Honey Co-Op, and announced via the NYC Beekeeping Meetup http://meetup.com/nyc-beekeeping

NYC Beekeeping Meetup

Gotham City Honey Co-Op

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANYTHING FURTHER TO ADD TO THIS?????