Food collection and response to pheromones in an ant species exposed to electromagnetic radiation.

We used the ant species Myrmica sabuleti as a model to study the impact of electromagnetic waves on social insects' response to their pheromones and their food collection. We quantified M. sabuleti workers' response to their trail, area marking and alarm pheromone under normal conditions.

GSM 900 MHz radiation inhibits ants' association between food sites and encountered cues.

The kinetics of the acquisition and loss of the use of olfactory and visual cues were previously obtained in six experimental colonies of the ant Myrmica sabuleti meinert 1861, under normal conditions. In the present work, the same experiments were conducted on six other naive identical colonies of M. sabuleti, under electromagnetic radiation similar to those surrounding GSM and communication masts.