By Dr. Mercola
Plants and bees have a symbiotic relationship. Flowering
plants depend on an outside source to ‘spread the love’ through
pollination, and bees are happy to fill that need, receiving
nectar (which they convert into honey) for the service they
provide.
But how do bees manage to be so efficient in their quest for
nectar? And is it true this delicately balanced relationship is
under threat?
Scientists at Britain’s University of Bristol have spent 30
years trying to figure out exactly how bees know which flowers
will give them the most bang for their buck, so to speak. The
recent discovery is that bees and flowers participate in a
mutually beneficial
electromagnetism1
that results not only in the pollination and proliferation of
the plants, but the nourishment of the bees and the hives they
call home.
Research reveals that bees rely on an array of visual and
sensory clues such as humidity level, shape, pattern and color
to discern whether flowers have something to offer. In fact, it
is known that
bees have three times the color recognition ability2
of humans, but the electrical aspect, and the fact that it can
last up to a few hours is new information.
Electrical Allure: Bees Can Tell Which Flowers Spark the Most
Interest
Scientists have been aware for years that plants emit a weak,
negatively charged electrical field. They also knew that in
flight, the wings of bees can generate up to 200 volts of
positive electrical charge, which helps pollen adhere to the
fine hairs on the bees’ legs.
What they didn’t know until now was that bees can sense “come
hither” electrical vibes that flowering plants exude, similar to
the way sharks also sense electrical fields. Bumblebees, too,
participate in this electrically charged phenomenon.3
Bees can sense the weak electrical charge emitted by flowers
in order to determine if they have nectar, the
new study4
revealed. Even better, scientists say bees are capable of
altering the electrical charge of the blossoms they come into
contact with to help them choose which ones contain the most
nectar and pollen.
Bees also can tell which blooms have already been divested of
their sweet ambrosia by their pollinating competitors. This
serves to improve their resourcefulness as they reconnoiter
their nectar prospects. As they approach for a landing, the bee
transfers some of its charge to the plant stem and keeping it
positive for as long as two minutes. According to lead
researcher Dominic Clarke:
"Animals are just constantly surprising us as to how
good their senses are. More and more we're starting to see
that nature's senses are almost as good as they could
possibly be."
As Old as Time, the 'Animal Magnetism' Between Bees and Flowers
is Threatened with Ecological Disaster
Unfortunately, the delicate balance nature has provided since
time immemorial is collapsing, exposing a threat to the bee
population that is becoming increasingly catastrophic. The
delicate ecological and environmental balance is being
threatened by a number of man-made factors that affect more than
where flowers bloom and how much honey is produced.
The world as a whole has come under some alarming statistics
over the last decade. Environmental scientists are concerned
that a phenomenon CCD –
Colony Collapse Disorder – reflects a far more serious
problem than suboptimal pollination, and may be an ominous
indicator that the shifts in the ecosystem may lead to a
collapse in how we propagate our crops. Bees have busily carried
out that task for us for millennia, but unless something
changes, farmers may find themselves pollinating their crops by
hand.
More Than Honey – Bees Deliver Amazing Therapeutic Properties
To a very large degree, bees have been taken for granted. Not
only do they supply us with honey, which is possibly the most
healthful natural sweetener in the world, and is also used
to manufacture wax for cosmetics, food and medicine. But the
age-old harmony between plants and animals may hinge on the
behavior of bees and whether they’re able to do what they’ve
always done.
Propolis, the substance honeybees use to patch holes in
their hives is an ancient healing remedy for soothing a sore
throat and topical burns and relieving allergies. It has
antioxidant and anti-microbial activity. It’s also an analgesic,
anesthetic and anti-inflammatory. Bees actually use propolis as
a disinfectant themselves and even "embalm" invaders too large
to pull out of the hive presumably so that they will not
decompose and spread infection.
An experiment by scientists in India found that the decimated
bee population in Kerala was caused by electromagnetic
waves emitted immediately after the installation of mobile phone
towers and cell phones throughout the state. The
electromagnetic waves essentially crippled the "navigational
skills" of worker bees, according to lead researcher Dr.
Sainuddin Pattazhy. The worker bees simply didn’t return to
their hive when a cell phone was placed near it, leaving the
queens alone with the eggs. This was a simple experiment, but
with devastating results, as the entire colony collapsed within
ten days.5
Adding to the mystery, parasites, wildlife and other bees, which
would normally raid the abandoned hives, would not go near the
collapsed colonies.
Radiation has also been found to cause damage to the nervous
system of the bee, impeding its ability to fly. Cell phones may
create a
resonance effect that interferes with the movement patterns
bees use as a kind of language. That’s a serious problem since,
in the US alone, bees contribute $15 billion in annual
agriculture revenue and a third of the county’s food supply
depends on bees to pollinate crops.
Pesticides are Killing More Than Bees – They’re Killing Humans
That’s just one example of how the ecological balance can be
interrupted.
Why is this happening? Several factors have been identified,
including:
- Pesticides and insecticides
- Genetically modified crops
- Malnutrition of the bee population
- Viruses and fungi
- High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) used to feed bees in
managed hives
One poignant example of the pesticide problem comes with a
lawsuit filed by The German Coalition against Bayer Dangers
against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer Board of
Management, after losing thousands of hives due to poisoning by
the pesticide
clothianidin. Bayer was accused of marketing dangerous
pesticides that allegedly caused the mass death of bees all over
the world. In fact, apple orchards require at least one bee
colony for every acre to be adequately pollinated. So, unless
this devastating trend is reversed, the world could be in for
some major
food shortages.
Even more alarming may be the rate at which wild bees are
dropping from sight, particularly regarding crop yields,
according to a worldwide study.6
Coffee, onions, almonds, tomatoes and strawberries were among 40
fruits and vegetables in 600 fields examined by scientists to
determine which would win the pollination race. The report
returned that wild bees were twice as effective as honey bees in
this endeavor.7
Scientists studied the pollination of more than 40 crops in
600 fields across every populated continent and found wild
pollinators were twice as effective as honey bees in producing
seeds and fruit on crops including oilseed rape, coffee, onions,
almonds, tomatoes and strawberries. Furthermore, trucking in
managed honey bee hives did not replace wild pollination when
that was lost, but only added to the pollination that took
place.8
One of every three bites of food you eat depends on the honey
bee. They pollinate at least 130 different crops in the US
alone, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts. That bees can
actually sense and respond to electrical fields emitted by
flowering plants is remarkable, says bee biologist and author
Mark Winston from
Simon Fraser University in
Burnaby, B.C. He adds:
“[B]ees perceive the world around them, and it adds
another wonderful story that continues to deepen our
understanding the co-evolved relationship between bees and
flowers.”
Only a change in the status quo will cause a turnaround of
this tragic situation that threatens not only bees all over the
world, but the world’s entire, increasingly unsustainable food
system.
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.