There are likely numerous reasons for Colony Collapse Disorder, but new research seems to confirm that the most popular pesticides on the planet are likely a dramatic cause of bees being under siege. From Damian Carrington at the Guardian:

“The mysterious vanishing of honeybees from hives can be directly linked to insectcide use, according to new research from Harvard University. The scientists showed that exposure to two neonicotinoids, the world’s most widely used class of insecticide, lead to half the colonies studied dying, while none of the untreated colonies saw their bees disappear.

‘We demonstrated that neonicotinoids are highly likely to be responsible for triggering ‘colony collapse disorder’ in honeybee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter,’ said Chensheng Lu, an expert on environmental exposure biology at Harvard School of Public Health and who led the work.

The loss of honeybees in many countries in the last decade has caused widespread concern because about three-quarters of the world’s food crops require pollination.”

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“If you’re after getting the honey  / Then you don’t go killing all the bees”: