A new study by the State Institute of Bee Research, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany , engineered by the Communications Engineering Lab (CEL) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology found that there were significant effects on the homing ability of foraging honey bees when long term exposed to frequencies used in Wi-Fi and wireless networks, 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. No effects were found on brood development or adult worker longevity. Notably the effects on homing behavior were only evident after long-term, not short-term, irradiation.
“Study after study shows that wireless radiation can harm bees and other wildlife. Yet no federal agencies are acting to protect them. This is a critical regulatory gap that must be immediately addressed to protect pollinators, ” stated Theodora Scarato Executive Director of Environmental Health Trust.
The study Defined exposure of honey bee colonies to simulated radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF): Negative effects on the homing ability, but not on brood development or longevity was published in the journal Science of The Total Environment by Manuel Treder, Marcus Müller, Larissa Fellner, Kirsten Traynor and Peter Rosenkranz.
Abstract
Urbanization and the increasing use of wireless technologies lead to higher emission rates of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) in populated areas. This anthropogenic electromagnetic radiation is a form of environmental pollution and a potential stressor on bees or other flying insects. Cities often have a high density of wireless devices operating on microwave frequencies, which generate electromagnetic frequencies e.g. in the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands commonly used by the wireless technologies. To date the effects of nonionizing electromagnetic radiation on the vitality and behavior of insects are poorly understood. In our experiment we used honey bees as model organisms and analyzed the effects of defined exposures to 2.4 and 5.8 GHz on brood development, longevity and homing ability under field conditions. To generate this radiation, we used a high-quality radiation source which generates a consistent, definable and realistic electromagnetic radiation, engineered for this experiment by the Communications Engineering Lab (CEL) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Our results show significant effects of long-term exposures on the homing ability of foraging honey bees, but no effects on brood development and adult worker longevity. Using this novel and high-quality technical set-up, this interdisciplinary work provides new data on the effects of these widely used frequencies on important fitness parameters of free-flying honey bees.
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