On the verge
On the verge
Take the covid lockdown, add wireless radiation and our declining bee populations and what do you have?
You have an unprecedented opportunity.
For years there’s been evidence that wireless radiation has harmful effects on bees and other insects. We posted a blog about how harmful it is to insects this earlier this year and have reprinted an article about its effects on bees below.
As well as this, we know that wireless radiation creates a stress response in the body, activating the heat shock protein (stress) response in cells, and that it’s commonly linked with anxiety.
Here’s something simple you can do about both these problems – while creating something beautiful in the process – and lockdown may be just the opportunity for it.
Verge gardens.
This week’s picture shows a verge garden that was built during last year’s lockdown. It’s full of grevilleas, banksias, lavender, gazanias, geraniums and an assortment of other species that will burst into flower in spring.
There are so many other beautiful verge gardens in our area and we’ll be posting pictures of them on social media in the coming week. We’d love to see yours, too.
Creating a verge garden is an antidote to stress and a great way to support our struggling bee populations. And they’re a source of beauty, too.
How about it?
Wireless radiation and bees
High frequency radiation could have a damaging effect on bees, according to a paper published in Nature.
Arno Thielens and team were interested to see how much power the Western Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) would absorb at different frequencies. These bees are extremely important insects because of the environmental and economic benefits they provide as pollinators. Like all living creatures, they are affected by the heating caused by electromagnetic fields, the authors say.
As well as taking measurements at beehives in Belgium, the authors developed models of several different types of bees—two workers, a drone, a larva and a queen bee—and used these to calculate radiation absorption at frequencies from 0.6 GHz to 120 GHz.
The authors found that exposing bees ‘to frequencies higher than 3GHz—without changing the incident field strength—would result in relative increases in absorbed power between a factors 24-48’.
Thielens, A., Greco, M.K., Verloock, L. et al. ‘Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Field Exposure of Western Honey Bees’ Sci Rep 10, 461 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598...;
What you can do
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Plant a verge garden on the nature strip near your home. You might like to include these ten native plants loved by native bees in it.
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Post pictures of your verge gardens on our social media pages. We’d love to see them.
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Use your time during lockdown to check out the field in your home and talk to us about how you can reduce them with our Home Test Kit.
Do you have questions?
Did you know you can talk to a consultant for professional advice?
You can book our professional phone consultation with us here.
What else you can do