colony-collapse

Seventy-five percent of honey samples taken from around the world contained traces of neonicotinoids — a class of insecticides harmful to honeybees, says a study published in the journal Science.

The head of Donald Trump’s EPA transition team, Myron Ebell, is not only a climate-change skeptic. He also has a history of discouraging pesticide regulations, writes Tom Philpott at Mother Jones, pointing to Ebell's role as the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

An evaluation of bee hives found a dangerously high level of Varroa mites, a honeybee pest that is blamed in part for calamitous declines in the bee population, says Agri-Pulse, citing a blog by a Bayer scientist.

Australian researchers have attached tiny microsensors to about 10,000 healthy honeybees to try to learn the cause of the global decline in bee populations, says the Christian Science Monitor.

Along with massive loss of honeybee colonies, the number of professional beekeepers is falling, says the Washington Post, although the number of managed bee colonies is on the rise.

A widely used insecticide, the neonicotinoid imidacloprid, "does not significantly harm honey bee colonies at real-world doses," contrary to concerns that neonics, as they are called, are to blame for population declines, says a University of Maryland study.

Some 23,300 bee keepers nationwide would be contacted about honeybee mortality under a pair of surveys proposed by the Agriculture Department.