OverviewI
Why the discrepancy? Part of it has do with the fact that Western agriculture favors the practice of growing our food in monocultures—a single crop type over an entire field. Since this approach often leaves little to no pollinator habitat, the alternative is to ship in managed bees from other places to fill the void. For example, California grows over 1.5 million acres of almonds. These crops are highly managed: once the trees are no longer in bloom, few flowers remain for bees of any kind to feed on, rendering the landscape incapable of supporting a sufficient native pollinator population. It’s a shame, because science has demonstrated that native bee species often out-pollinate honey bees.
t’s not easy being a bee. Modern honey bee colonies face the threat of Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon where most worker bees abruptly disappear, as well as harmful parasites like the varroa mite. Fortunately, we’re currently able to rear honey bee colonies at a rate that backfills those losses. However, there are 4,000 native bee species in North America and more than 20,000 worldwide, and most, if not all, of them enjoy nowhere near the level of protection afforded to their domesticated cousins.
Two mining bees (Ptilothrix chiricahua) rest inside an Arizona poppy, their preferred host plant. This bee species, first described in 2023, has an interesting behavior: it collects water to soften the hard desert soil, making it easier to dig nesting burrows. The photo was taken in the Chihuahuan Desert of southern Arizona. Photo Credit: Clay Bolt
Challenges
Among the greatest threats to all bees—both native and domesticated—are neonicotinoid pesticides, which have made U.S. agriculture 48 times more toxic to pollinators since their introduction in the 1990s. Iowa State University found that a single neonic-treated corn seed contains enough active ingredients to kill approximately 80,000 bees. Despite industry claims of these pesticides being more selective and less harmful, there is little doubt how toxic they are to non-targeted species like bumble bees, monarch butterflies, songbirds, white-tailed deer and even humans—particularly pregnant women and children.
With American farmers planting roughly 30,000 seeds per acre across 90 million acres of corn annually (an area 75 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park) the potential toxic load in cornfields alone theoretically contains enough active ingredients to eliminate North America’s entire bird population 300 times over or kill an estimated 216 quadrillion bees.
Most troubling, substantial evidence indicates that neonicotinoid seed treatments across tens of millions of acres provide little to no economic benefit to farmers. This is because they are generally added to seeds and planted regardless of whether the pests are present in the field or not. Ubiquitous use of neonics when target pests are not present is both a waste of farmers’ money and may actually decrease yields by harming beneficial insects that control pests. However, even if farmers want to plant non-neonicotinoid-treated seeds, they can be difficult to source since seed companies have made it the norm to pre-treat major commodity crops like corn with these pesticides, whether warranted or not. The end result is farmers paying for unnecessary pesticide coatings while unintentionally contributing to pollinator declines that have already reduced global fruit and vegetable production by 3-5%, resulting in more than 400,000 human deaths annually.
The Euphorb mini-fairy bee (Perdita minima), is the world’s smallest bee. It is shown here visiting whitemargin sandmat (Chamaesyce albomarginata) in the Chihuahuan desert near Portal, Arizona. Photo Credit: Clay Bolt
To reduce unneeded neonicotinoid use, farmers must first be set up for success, which includes increased access to non-treated seeds, and the necessary technical assistance that will make it easier for them to predict pest pressures. Beginning this spring, in partnership with leading agronomists, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is launching a series of field-trials in the Midwest that will compare side-by-side neonicotinoid treated and untreated seeds of the same genetics on working, commercial farms. These trials will be followed by field-days and technical assistance workshops for producers who are interested in experiencing first-hand the benefits of planting non-treated seeds, targeted pest-scouting, and other skills that will help them to transition away from always planting treated seeds to doing so only when required.
