DOES ENHANCED ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION DISTURB HONEYBEES’ BEHAVIOUR? OBSERVATIONS DURING NEW YEAR’S EVE 2019

Insects, and especially honeybees, are under major threat everywhere around the globe. Current studies lack in the consideration of potential effects which may directly affect other organisms or ecosystems, because of the very limited attention which is usually received by the potential adverse ecological effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. Here, it is hypothesized that planetary enhancement of electromagnetic radiation produces a disturbing pollution for honeybees. In order to test this hypothesis, a bi-directional wide frequency range microphone was placed during the New Year’s Eve night 2019 in a honeybee hive, in order to detect and analyze potential changes in the acoustic behaviour of the bees due to increased phone induced RF- EM radiation. It was observed that the honeybees produced strong worker piping signals. Such signals are typically produced shortly before takeoff of a swarm, or as the sign of a disturbed colony. It is therefore hypothesized that planetary enhancement of electromagnetic radiation produces a disturbing pollution for honeybees, such as during the New Year’s Eve night. Evidence of proof of such electromagnetic waves taking place at New Year's Eve should be investigated worldwide during forthcoming similar events based on a global network of long term EM measurements.


INTRODUCTION
Honeybees are under major threat everywhere around the globe [1], [2]. The so-called colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a recent phenomenon [3]. Current theories about the potential cause(s) of CCD essentially include increased losses due to the invasive varroa mite, pesticide poisoning, potential immune-suppressing stress on bees, drought, monocultural practices, migratory stress due the moving of the bees in long distances, and increased transmission of pathogens [4], [5]. Furthermore, radiation from mobile phones and mast antennas could also have contributed to the dramatic decline in insect populations, as revealed by a recent meta-analysis; indeed, increased exposure to electromagnetic radiation is "probably having a negative impact on the insect world", according to a recent study [6].

Does Enhanced Electromagnetic Radiation Disturb Honeybees' Behaviour? Observations During New Year's Eve 2019
International Journal of Research - GRANTHAALAYAH 8 Thielens et al. [7] studied the effects of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) on the Western honeybee. They showed that a relatively small shift of 10% of environmental incident power density from frequencies below 3 GHz to higher frequencies will lead to a relative increase in absorbed power of a factor higher than 3. In 2011, I have shown that active mobile phone handsets have a dramatic impact on the behaviour of bees, namely by inducing the worker piping signal [8]. These initial observations were substantiated by additional experiments that were performed with the controlled enhancement of the local RF-EMF signals [9]. In natural conditions, worker piping either announces the swarming process of the bee colony or is a signal of a disturbed bee colony [10], [11].
In order to assess, whether the increased radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation in the environment has an impact on the behaviour of honeybees, a broad spectral frequency microphone was placed in a hive during the New Year's Eve night of 2019, to investigate whether and to what degree the increased amount of local wireless communications might have an effect on the honeybees' behaviour around midnight, local time.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The recording of a honeybee colony during the New Year's Eve 2019 took place in a rural area of Switzerland, close to the city of Montreux and at an altitude of 960 m above sea level. This location is surrounded by small mountains (Les Pléiades, Le Folly and Le Cubly, at 1362, 1730 and 1187 m above sea level, respectively). There is only one local emitting antenna in direct view (CH1093+ / LV95 ; https://www.bakom.admin.ch/bakom/en/homepage/frequencies-and-antennas/location-of-radiotransmitters.html), located more than 800 m away from the hive (Fig. 1a). The device employed for the recording of the honeybees' sounds consisted of a bidirectional compact microphone (Olympus ME-31) with frequency response from 70 to 15,000 Hz connected to a vocal recorder (Olympus LS-11). The microphone was placed in the bottom part of the hive (Figs. 1b and c). The vocal recorder was connected to an external battery (Panasonic LC-R123R4P; https://na.industrial.panasonic.com/) via a 12V-to-4.5V voltage converter (Dupertuis Electronique S.A., Lausanne, Switzerland) (Fig. 1d). The recorded signal was digitized as a Waveform audio file format sound file with 44,1 kHz recording mode. The open source, cross platform audio software Audacity (https://www.audacityteam.org/) was employed for the manual analysis of the sound files and for the generation of the audiograms (also called sonograms) and spectrograms (oscillograms). The computer program FFT Properties 5.0 (Dew Research LLC, SLO-3210 Slovenske Konjice, Slovenia) was employed for the generation and the analysis of the orbital phase (which is a visualization of the signal strength during a given period). Intensity values of audiograms might slightly vary throughout the whole recordings in the hive, depending on the clustering of the bees in the hive during winter. The sound files are freely available at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5mkkwh748. In the geographic area where the recordings took place, the bees (Apis mellifera carnica) usually begin to forage to collect nectar and pollen in early March, depending on the weather conditions. All applicable national guidelines for the care and use of honeybees were followed.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The fundamental frequency of Apis mellifera carnica was in the range of 70 to 100 Hertz (Hz). Dramatic changes in the fundamental intensity and frequency patterns of the sounds produced in the hive were recorded before, during and after the local New Year's Eve. It was indeed observed based on the recorded signals that the honeybees were significantly disturbed around midnight (local time), since the colony emitted a strong and long lasting (about 15 minutes) worker piping signal (Fig. 2).  It is hypothesized here that the honeybees were subjected not only to local but to global anthropogenic environmental RF-EMFs exposure occurring from New Year's Eve festivities around the globe. Indeed, the worker piping signals produced by honeybees is usually a signal that is produced shortly before takeoff of a swarm [10], or is associated with disturbance of the hive by, for example, intruders or jarring [11]. The induction of honeybee worker piping by enhanced electromagnetic fields might have dramatic consequences in terms of colony losses due to unexpected swarming. It is therefore time to assess the planetary electromagnetic pollution, since the Internet of Things and 5G will add millions more radiofrequency transmitters around and radiating with unprecedented increased power density above us, and since radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) have increased by several orders of magnitude over the last 50 years [12]. Current studies lack in the consideration of potential effects which may directly affect other organisms or ecosystems, because of the very limited attention which is usually received by the adverse ecological effects of RF-EMF [13]. Hallmann et al. have observed a seasonal decline of 76%, and mid-summer decline of 82% in flying insect biomass over the 27 years of their study [14]. These authors showed that this decline was apparent regardless of habitat type, while changes in weather, land use, and habitat characteristics cannot explain this overall decline.
It is obvious that in the future, thorough independent scientific investigations must be conducted in order to confirm or refute the working hypothesis : do RF-EMFs emitted not only locally, but worldwide, have the ability to disturb the behavior of honeybees ? Several critical parameters should be concomitantly analysed in the close vicinity of the honeybees participating in these studies, such as : i) the permanent measurement of the levels of exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiations (around various frequency bands) ; ii) the analysis of the environmental electric and magnetic fields, and their variations ; iii) the examination of the putative involvement of natural atmospheric events such as, for example, the variations in the radio atmospheric signals, the so-called spherics [15].
There might be an unknown planetary electromagnetic mechanism for the generation of the observed sound effects in a bee colony. Indeed, honeybees have magnetic remanence [16] and can be trained to respond to very small Does Enhanced Electromagnetic Radiation Disturb Honeybees' Behaviour? Observations During New Year's Eve 2019 changes in geomagnetic-field intensity, with the detection of an anomaly of 0.06% of background [17]. Honeybees do possess a magnetoreception system [18] and have been shown capable of detecting weak electric fields [19]. Evidence of proof of such electromagnetic waves taking place at New Year's Eve should be investigated worldwide during forthcoming similar events based on a global network of long term EM measurements. Protocols and methodologies are available for thoroughly performing such investigations [20], [21], [22].
Further verification of the above working hypothesis by implementing such measurements in a global monitoring network will be important for a mechanistic understanding of the interaction of RF fields with ecosystems [23].

CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
The present study has revealed disturbing behaviour by honeybees which were very likely caused by increased wireless phone EM radiation during New Year's Eve celebrations around the globe. To the best of these authors' knowledge, this behaviour could not be explained by natural causes.
The forthcoming deployment of the 5G (fifth generation) wireless network, including 5G from space satellites, will increase exposure to radio frequency (RF) radiation on top of the 2G, 3G and 4G networks for telecommunications already in place. These RF radiations might be harmful for the biosphere. There is therefore an urgent need to address the so-called anthropogenic electrosmog [12]. The risk assessment and regulation of anthropogenic electromagnetic fields should be carefully evaluated and coordinated under international scrutiny.
Increasing RF-EM radiation power worldwide and the upcoming 5G rollout may present a serious challenge not only for honeybees but public health in general [24].