It turns out cell phones distract and annoy more than just drivers, moviegoers, golfers and teachers. According to scientists, bees get all kinds of crazy when cell phone signals scramble their senses.

The Daily Mail reports a study consisting of 83 experiments led by a Swiss researcher found that cell phones placed beneath hives caused bees to fly erratically, then die.

Bees also got — to use a scientific term — noticeably more pissed off when the cell phones made or received calls, amping noise in the hive up to 10 times normal levels.

The bright side to all of this is, according to my less-than-authoritative interpretation of the results, is that if you’re ever being chased down by a swarm of angry bees, you may manage to send some of them off your trail if you pull out your phone and dial 9-1-1. Of course, your call will probably anger the bees that manage to stay on your tail.

Mobile phones ARE to blame for killing off the world’s bee populations, scientists claim [Daily Mail]

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