| | Category | BE | L01 | Honey of Mystery Investigation |
| | Abstract | The purpose of this project was to determine whether electromagnetic |
| | radiation, emitted from a cellular phone has any effect on honey bees. My |
| | hypothesis was that the electromagnetic radiation would disorient the |
| | bees and disable their navigational skills that they use to find their way |
| | back to the hive when out foraging for nectar from flowers. |
| | I created two terrariums with identical groups of honey bees , placing a |
| | cellular phone by one of the terrariums, and observed and recorded the |
| | behaviors of both "control" group (without a cell phone/ presence of |
| | electromagnetic radiation) and "subject" group (with a cell phone/presence |
| | of electromagnetic radiation). I monitored daily for any behavioral |
| | differences in the "subject" group from the "control" group and recorded |
| | any observations and data. |
| | I found that the group of bees with the cellular phone showed agitated and |
| | abnormal behavior, forming small clusters and flying around in bizarre |
| | patterns. While the group of bees without a cellular phone showed to be |
| | more calm expressing a more normal behavior. They remained in one place |
| | in the terrarium, which was established as a sort of home base similar to |
| | a hive. They left to obtain food set up in the terrarium and returned to the |
| | “home base”. These observations seem to indicate that the |
| | electromagnetic radiation emitted from the cellular phone does disorient the |
| | bees and overall bother them; but since my experiment was held in a |
| | short distance, controlled environment I could not test to see if the bees |
| | would be able to find their way back to their hive by placing a cellular |
| | phone by it. |
| | I would conclude that the electromagnetic radiation disorients the bees; |
| | however further investigation is needed to determine whether the |
| | electromagnetic radiation would hinder them from finding their way back to |
| | the hive. Using a hive in the wild and placing a cellular phone by it while |
| | worker bees are out collecting nectar would show whether or not the |
| | bees would be able to find their way back to the hive. Maybe a tube or |
| | something to direct the path the bees have to take back that passes |
| | through or by a high level of EMR could be used. |
| | Bibliography | James Harris, Larry West "Why are honeybees disappearing?" May 14, |
| | 2008 |
| | http://environment.about.com/od/biodiversityconservation/a/honeybees.htm |
| | (accessed 30 Oct. 2009) Don Behm. McClatchy - Tribune Business News, |
| | Jan 1, 2007, p1 "Bees Flee Hives: National Collapse of Honeybee Colonies |
| | felt in Wisconsin". Dr. Mae-Won Ho. ISIS, April 25, 2007. "Mobile Phones |
| | and Vanishing Bees" http://www.i- |
| | sis.org.uk/MobilePhonesVanishingBees.php (accessed Dec. 15, 2009) |