Question 10 - Why are bee colonies collapsing? Is my mobile phone to blame?

There are many and various theories to explain the collapse in bee colonies, or 'colony collapse disorder' as it is sometimes called. I'll call it 'CCD' because it takes less time to type - and less time for you to say out loud.

None of these theories have anything to do with mobile phones so, unless you have been travelling throughout Europe (or even the world), hammering at beehives with your ruggedised Nokia, your armour-plated Sony Ericsson or your jacked-up Blackberry, I think we can rule out mobile phone involvement.

Yes, I appreciate that you might have been referring to low-level radiation or some other pseudo-scientific hokus-pokus nonsense but there has, thus far, been ABSOLUTELY NO link proven between mobile phones and the destruction of anything, except possibly the ability to view a city skyline without seeing a bunch of transmitters cluttering it up.

The short answer is that CCD could be caused by the varroa mite sucking the lifeblood out of the poor itty-bitty insects - unless it's the fault of some evil pesticide or the wet summers we've had of late.