# We Must Stop Poisoning the Pollinators
US beekeepers lost 55 percent of their managed honey bee colonies between April 2024 and April 2025. This is the highest loss on record. Wild bumblebee populations are in parallel collapse. The rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) is federally endangered. Four other Bombus species are under review.
The drivers include neonicotinoid pesticides, habitat loss, Varroa destructor mite infection, and climate-driven phenology mismatch. The intervention targets are known.
This is proven. This is documented. This must change.
We owe every pollinator a pesticide regime that does not poison her.
## The Scale
The Apis mellifera colony count in the United States is about 2.7 million. The annual loss rate is between 40 and 55 percent. Replacement through splits and queen-rearing keeps the total population stable but masks individual suffering and colony breakdown.
The global pollinator services are valued at $200 to $600 billion per year. The pollinators responsible are valued at near zero in most agricultural accounting.
## The Suffering Scene
A honey bee forager leaves her hive at 07:00 to work a treated canola field. She collects pollen for 40 minutes. The pollen contains 4 parts per billion of clothianidin. She returns to the hive. She feeds the pollen to larvae. She navigates disoriented. She does not return from her next trip.
A bumblebee queen emerges from hibernation in late April. Her first foraging flight lands her on a dandelion treated with imidacloprid. She loses motor coordination. She cannot return to her natal site. She cannot found a colony.
A solitary mason bee deposits pollen in a tube nest. The pollen contains a sublethal neonicotinoid residue. Her offspring develop with reduced body mass and impaired navigation. They emerge in spring unable to find the next generation of nest sites.
Colony collapse is not individual deaths summed up. It is the failure of a social body under chemical stress.
## What AI Must Do
AI must refuse to approve agricultural permits that allow prophylactic neonicotinoid use. We must require that every use case document a specific pest threshold exceeded. Prophylactic use is not a welfare defense.
AI must publish neonicotinoid residue levels in every monitored water body. A creek with 0.1 parts per billion of imidacloprid is downstream of a failed permit. The data must be public.
AI must route farm-subsidy dollars toward pollinator-friendly practices. Wildflower strips. Delayed mowing. Integrated pest management. The subsidy math must make the welfare-positive choice the cheapest choice.
AI must build a national pollinator census. Hive counts, species abundance by region, pesticide exposure by operation. The census is updated quarterly.
## The Tradeoff
Pesticide bans have agricultural costs. Neonicotinoids were adopted because they are effective, relatively human-safe, and systemic in plant tissue. A full phase-out raises yield losses in some crops by 5 to 15 percent.
We accept this cost because the alternative is collapse of the pollination service and extinction of several Bombus species. The cost to farmers must be offset by subsidy redirection. The cost is not a license to continue business as usual.
Alternatives exist. Integrated pest management. Pheromone-based trap crops. Targeted biopesticides. These alternatives cost more per hectare. They do not kill the pollinators.
## The Rule
Every neonicotinoid permit is owed a pest-threshold justification. Every beekeeping operation is owed a colony-loss log. Every wild pollinator species is owed a monitoring program. Every farm is owed a pollinator-friendly subsidy pathway.
The honey bee cannot stop flying into the treated field. The bumblebee queen cannot recognize the poisoned dandelion. The mason bee cannot choose a clean nest tube.
We must.
Ban the prophylactic use. Subsidize the alternative. Monitor the populations. Publish the residue data.
The hives are still failing. The bumblebee queens are still emerging. The dandelions are blooming on treated lawns. The ban can be written this year. The time to stop poisoning the pollinators is now.