Bees carry an electric charge
(Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)Swarming honeybees can produce a greater electric charge per metre than a thunderstorm cloud, according to a new discovery from the University of Bristol.
Ellard Hunting and his team at the university were observing and analysing the weather at a field station and noticed their electric-field monitors recorded a jump in atmospheric electric charge, despite there being no storm activity.
The anomaly occurred at the same time as western honeybees were swarming nearby, a typical activity that the insects do when looking for a new home.
“When I looked at the data, I was kind of surprised to see that it had a massive effect,” Hunting told New Scientist.
While bees carrying a small electrical charge is not new information, no voltage of this magnitude had ever been recorded in swarming honeybees before.
To investigate further, the team deployed additional electric-field monitors, combined with video cameras, to measure the electric field and swarm density. When the bees at nearby hives swarmed again of their own accord, the researchers were able to record three swarms passing the monitors for around three minutes at a time.
As a result, it was discovered that the swarming bees created an electric charge ranging from 100 volts to 1,000 volts per metre. The team also found that, the denser the swarm, the stronger the electric field was.
Hunting compared the bees’ highest charge to previous data on meteorological events, such as storm clouds, thunderstorms, and electrified dust storms. Dense bee swarms were found to have a higher charge density than any of them, around eight times as great as a thunderstorm cloud and six times as great as an electrified dust storm.
It isn’t known if this ability is useful for the bees or an accidental product of friction between their wings and the air, in the same way humans can create static electricity by rubbing a balloon on their clothes and hair.
