ELECTRICAL POLLUTION

“Experimental visualisation of floral electric field using electrostatic dusting. Flowers are shown before (left) and after (right) dusting with positively charged coloured powder (blue or yellow on the bottom image).”

ELECTROSTATIC ECOLOGY
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5599473
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9732734
https://newscientist.com/honeybees-confused-by-electric-pollution-power-lines
Honeybees are getting confused by electric pollution from power lines
by Madeleine Cuff / 22 May 2025

“Electric signals from power lines discourage bees from landing on nearby flowers, and there is growing concern that this so-called “electric pollution” could be causing widespread disruption to insect behaviour. Alongside bumblebees, honeybees have been shown to detect and respond to airborne electric fields – which are often caused by static electricity in the natural world – detected through hairs or antennae. Research has shown that honeybees use electro-reception as a form of communication, and both honeybees and bumblebees are thought to use it to locate nectar-rich flowers.

“Characterization of the physical electrical forces acting between predatory wasps and prey caterpillars”

Other insects have also been shown to make use of these electric fields; caterpillars, for example, use changes in airborne electric fields to spot when a predatory wasp is approaching. But to date, little is known about how human-made electricity impacts this natural behaviour among pollinators. To investigate, Liam O’Reilly at the University of Bristol, UK, and his colleagues team tested how western honeybee (Apis mellifera) behaviour changed when different kinds of electric fields were applied to the air around a catmint plant (Nepeta grandiflora) in an urban meadow in Bristol.

“Laboratory setup and electric field strength measurements”

They created an electric field using a weak alternating current (AC), simulating the environment 60 to 100 metres from a high-voltage mains power line, for 2 hours. This reduced honeybee landings on the affected plant by 71 per cent compared with a nearby control plant. “The first 10 minutes of the AC treatment was a really dramatic difference – there were far fewer landings than the control,” says O’Reilly. “Alternating current is just completely alien to bees.” Landings did increase on the treatment plant as the trial continued, but never reached control levels, O’Reilly notes.

“Bumblebee covered in body hairs. The white circle containing a plus (+) denotes electrode insertion points in the antennae. The white circle containing a cross (x) denotes approximate electrode insertion points for hair recordings.”

In another test, the team created an electric field using direct current (DC), like the power generated by a battery, which reduced bee landings by 53 per cent compared with the control. The findings have worrying implications for honeybees, a key pollinator, especially given the ubiquity of electricity infrastructure in most nations. Estimates suggest that in the UK alone, there are almost 70,000 square kilometres of land on which bee colonies forage in the range of high-voltage transmission lines. “It’s a small study; it’s one species of pollinator,” O’Reilly says. But given previous research looking at honeybees and bumblebees, a “trend of concerning results” is emerging, he says.

Other studies have shown that honeybee behaviour is affected by human-made electromagnetic fields, but this is the first to isolate the impact of electricity, says Sam England at the Museum of Natural History Berlin in Germany. The study “confirms a lot of the suspicions we had already about these power lines being able to affect insect behaviour,” he says. England says the response of honeybees is likely to be similar in regions around the world, and warns other insects are likely to be impacted by human-made electric fields in similar ways. “If I was a betting man, I would probably put money on the fact that many more species, in many other ecological contexts, are also having their natural behaviours interfered with or modified by the electricity coming from power lines,” he says.

More research is needed to determine how power lines and other electricity infrastructure are changing insect behaviour in real-world settings, says O’Reilly, including assessing whether behaviour is altered over the long term. But options for protecting insects from airborne electric fields are likely to be limited. Burying power lines or adding extra insulation to cables might help, but such measures are expensive. “In the short term, if you’re someone who has an apiary, it would probably be better if you can keep your apiaries further from power infrastructure,” says O’Reilly. “I think you’d have happier bees.”

Journal reference: iScience DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112550

“A parasitic nematode twirls through the air, pulled toward its electrostatically charged insect host (top). Tiny particles make the electrostatic field visible (bottom).”

MAGNETORECEPTION INTERFERENCE
https://quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-world-of-electrostatic-ecology
https://theconversation.com/electric-ecology-how-animals-plants-use-electricity
https://newscientist.com/electromagnetic-fields-messing-with-honeybees/
Electromagnetic fields from power lines are messing with honeybees
by Sofia Quaglia / 12 May 2023″The electromagnetic fields emitted from transmission towers – like those that support overhead power lines that transport power from energy plants to cities – mess with honeybees’ pollinating abilities. This disruption could have a significant impact on the biodiversity in these environments as well. Honeybees often rely on natural electromagnetic fields (EMFs) to navigate their surroundings – they have a specialised magnetoreception system in their abdomens. A growing body of research has already suggested that exposure to artificial EMFs can be disorienting for honeybees, sometimes causing them to get lost on their way home from foraging, and even leaving entire colonies without enough foragers to survive in some cases.

“Characterization of EMF in the field and target species”

Gabriel Ballesteros at the University of Talca in Chile, and his colleagues exposed 100 honeybees (Apis mellifera) to different levels of high-voltage, low-frequency EMFs in a lab for 3 minutes at a time. Compared with honeybees exposed to low levels, those subjected to more intense EMFs produced about 50 per cent more heat-shock proteins – normally elicited by high heat, these molecules protect cells from stress. The researchers also saw a significant decrease in the expression levels of genes associated with the bees’ abilities to forage, form memories and navigate. The researchers also observed honeybees in the wild in Quinamávida, Chile, and compared populations in areas with active or inactive high-voltage towers. They found that, for selected honeybees close to active transmission towers, heat-shock protein numbers doubled after just 5 minutes.

Effects of EMF on plant community. Relationships between the distance to the transmission towers and (A) plant species richness, (B) overall plant species, and (C) E. californica relative abundance assessed at towers that were not transmitting any current (EMF turned off, gray) and at towers that did (EMF turned on, red).”

Honeybees near active high-voltage towers also visited the surrounding California poppy plants (Eschscholzia californica) only a third as often as those not exposed to EMFs. “The bees were avoiding the flowers that were located in the proximity of the overhead lines,” says Ballesteros. “They sort of flew towards the flowers, but then they just prefer to stay away.” He says that plant populations were also less varied and abundant in those same areas.

This might not be the whole picture, according to Henry Lai at the University of Washington in Seattle and his colleague B. Blake Levitt, who have studied the effects of EMFs on plants and animals. They say the study only looks at one kind of EMF exposure in the wild, but it is rare today to find an environment with just a single source of EMFs.

For instance, cell phone antennas emitting radio-frequency radiation are sometimes mounted directly on high-tension transmission towers so honeybees are often experiencing multi-frequency exposure. Even emissions from the researcher’s cell phones, if in active call mode, could make a difference, and the researchers didn’t note if cell towers were located nearby. Levitt and Lai also note that the study doesn’t mention whether field sites near towers had been tested for pesticides, which are commonly used to keep such areas clear of vegetation and could affect honeybees.”

Journal reference: Science Advances DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh1455

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