At a field station near the University of Bristol in the UK, experimental ecologist Ellard Hunting and his colleagues noticed an unexpected jump in the atmospheric electrical charge on a clear day, New Scientist reports. As it turns out, the jolt came from a nearby swarm of western honey bees (Apis mellifera), the team reports today (October 24) in iScience.
Researchers already knew that bees and other insects carry small charges, but Hunting tells New Scientist that he was “kind of surprised to see that [the honey bee swarm] had a massive effect.”
Further testing revealed that bee swarms can generate an electrical charge up to 1,000 volts per meter, with denser swarms leading to stronger electrical fields, the researchers write in their paper. That’s a charge density that greatly exceeds thunderstorm clouds and electrified dust storms, they report. The authors speculate that insects’ contribution to atmospheric electricity may influence ...
