When I started studying honeybees in 1998, I quickly noticed just how much people loved them. I also realised that people’s knowledge rarely extended beyond “bees make honey” and “they live in hives”.
Sometimes there would be mention of beeswax or queen bees, but in general, the love for these insects was based on surface knowledge and cultural links – very often Winnie the Pooh.
Over the next 10 years or so, I noticed things changed. Pollination became something people started to recognise and care about. Suddenly, bees were essential for our food production.
Then disaster struck. Around 2007, the first reports of mysterious mass disappearances of honeybees – especially in the US – started to appear in the world’s media.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) was making front-page news, and doom-mongers predicted a world without honeybees. The long-running BBC show Doctor Who even had a storyline about it. We would, the headlines seemed to scream, all starve to death.
It seems the pattern is destined to repeat itself. Two decades on from CCD, the headlines are full of honeybees. “Millions of honeybees are dying and no one is sure why,” says the UK’s Independent, reporting on 60 to 70 per cent losses to US beekeepers this year, and 55 per cent losses last year.
Top US beekeepers are warning of a “death spiral”, according to The Guardian, and the Trump administration’s withdrawal of funding from research programmes is only adding to concerns.
But here’s the thing: most of the panic simply doesn’t hold up. Top insect experts agree the issue is overblown – and often misunderstood.
Colony crash
To understand the current problem, we have to revisit the mid-2000s and CCD.
Here, beekeepers witnessed the majority of worker bees disappearing from hives, leaving the queen, her eggs and larvae, and just a few bees left to care for them. Although colony collapses in the US attracted the most press attention, the phenomenon was reported throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.
We still don’t know for sure what caused CCD. It was likely a combination of factors, with disease, habitat loss, pesticide use and intensive management by beekeepers all potentially playing their part.
What we do know, though, is that such disappearances weren’t new. Beekeepers have documented numerous similar events in the past, calling it May disease, fall dwindle disease and other names.
This time around, the cause of the problem is less mysterious than CCD. Early research strongly suggests that honeybees are dying of a virus transmitted by the Varroa mite that live on honeybees.
While they’re known to cause harm and transmit disease, they can usually be controlled with chemicals. What appears to have happened recently is that the mites have evolved resistance to these chemicals.
This scenario probably sounds familiar. The evolution of resistance is almost inevitable, whether we’re killing off plant and insect pests in crop fields, using antibiotics against bacteria or treating cancer.
When we use a particular agent, like a pesticide, time and time again, genetic differences in the pests mean that eventually some of them may be able to resist that agent better than others. If these individuals survive and reproduce, then their offspring can inherit their parents’ resistance.
Hives as harvest
Pesticide and herbicide resistance has become a defining feature of modern farming – and it's the farming itself, not just the chemicals, that’s central to understanding what's happening to honeybees.
Globally, the overwhelming majority of honeybees live in hives – artificial nest cavities we provide for them. This way, the bees live under semi-natural conditions, allowing us to easily relocate them and harvest the honey they produce.
In the UK, we tend to think of beekeeping as a hobby, but around the world, there are beekeeping operations managing thousands or even tens of thousands of hives.
Commercial beekeeping is a highly technical and intensive farming process, involving artificial insemination, re-queening of hives, feeding, moving to nectar sources, artificial hibernation conditions, and disease prevention and treatment, often on an epic scale. There are some ‘wild’ colonies, but in the modern world, the honeybee is very much a farmed species.
The bee's needs
Headlines may shout about honeybee die-offs, but the numbers show otherwise. In 2023, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that honeybee colonies have increased globally by 45 per cent since 1990, despite CCD. Another study showed an 85-per-cent increase since 1960.
It’s probably true to say that there have never been more honeybees in the world than there are today. And that’s likely to be true tomorrow, too. Despite the challenges, beekeepers can recover numbers and build up colonies, just like farmers recover from bad harvests.
Our deep cultural association with the honeybee makes them one of the few popular bugs. People care about them, and stories of their decline resonate. Hearing the headlines, people have naturally asked, “What can I do to help?”
For many, the obvious answer is, “I’ll become a beekeeper!” But, to paraphrase well-known bee expert Prof Dave Goulson, if you hear about declines in songbirds, do you think about becoming a chicken farmer?
These declines won’t be addressed by amateurs keeping honeybees. In fact, if you’re successful in keeping honeybees (and it’s harder than you imagine), then they’ll outcompete wild species for nectar, and potentially infect wild bees with diseases. By trying to save the bees, you might well do the opposite.
So, honeybees aren’t the problem here. They’re having a few health problems, as is common in farmed species, but they don’t need your help.
Recent media attention around CCD has had a knock-on effect, though. It’s led to a growing narrative that other pollinators are declining, too.
Solitary bees, hoverflies, wasps and butterflies have started to gain popularity as people realise that they also pollinate our food.
As these stories get more widely reported, they become entwined with a growing, bigger picture of more general insect decline. In the UK, 42 per cent of pollinator species have become less widespread since the 1980s. Despite some insects faring better, and local and short-term variation, the overall trend for pollinators is downwards.
How can you help these wild pollinators? If you have a garden or any land you have some stewardship over – perhaps a patch at work – then you can make it an insect haven.
Growing plants that provide nectar and pollen is one of the best things you can do. There are so many species to choose from – fruit trees, lavender, and more. Nectar plant lists are widely available online from Wildlife Trusts, the Royal Horticultural Society and others.
You can also resist the temptation to mow as much, make sure you avoid pesticides and leave areas untamed. Bug hotels can be effective, but it’s just as good to leave dead wood, clippings and other garden mess in a corner somewhere to provide shelter and potential nesting sites.
Another great thing to do is to dig a pond. Lay some sticks down the sides so that thirsty insects can drink safely on warm days.
Honeybees get all the attention, but it isn’t them that need our help. If you really want to save the bees then don’t become a beekeeper, become an insect cheerleader.
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