The numbers from 2024-2025 are not easy to read.
Between April 2024 and April 2025, beekeepers in the United States lost an estimated 55.6% of their managed colonies — the highest annual loss rate since tracking began in 2010. More than half of all managed honeybee colonies in the country died in a single year. This is not a new problem. But it is getting worse.
What is causing it
There is no single cause. The scientific consensus is that bee populations are dying under the combined weight of several overlapping stressors.
Varroa destructor mites have evolved resistance to amitraz, the primary chemical miticide beekeepers use to control them. These parasitic mites weaken bees by feeding on their organs and transmitting harmful viruses including Deformed Wing Virus and Acute Bee Paralysis Virus.
Alongside mite resistance, pesticide exposure — particularly neonicotinoids — continues to devastate populations at scale. Neonicotinoids interfere with the nervous system of insects, causing tremors, paralysis, and eventually death. These chemicals can be up to 10,000 times more toxic to bees than other insecticides. Unlike older pesticide sprays that wash off in the rain, neonics are systemic — a seed is treated before planting, and as the plant grows, it absorbs the toxin into its vascular system — including its nectar and pollen.
Habitat loss and poor nutrition compound both problems. Bees foraging on monoculture crops receive inadequate nutrition, weakening their immune systems and making them less able to fight off mites and disease.
What Brazil, Africa, and Cuba showed the world
Here is what makes the Varroa crisis even more significant: in much of the Southern Hemisphere, it never became a crisis at all.
In Brazil, Africa, and Mexico, beekeepers either could not afford to treat with miticides, chose not to treat, or their central beekeeping organisations made the decision not to treat when Varroa arrived — and instead allowed natural selection to run its course.
Initially, some countries suffered high losses. But those losses declined after several years as honeybees adapted to the mite and became Varroa-resistant. The bees that survived passed on their resistance. The colonies that could not adapt to the mite did not survive to reproduce. Over time, the population developed a natural immunity that no chemical treatment had been able to create in the North.
South American and African honeybees developed hygienic behavior — the ability to detect and remove mite-infested cells before the mites could reproduce. This behavior appears to be genetically heritable. The bees essentially learned, at a population level, to manage the parasite themselves.
Cuba offers perhaps the most striking example. Cuba now has the world's largest European mite-resistant bee population — 220,000 colonies that have been treatment-free for over two decades. Cuban honeybees are highly productive, yielding 40-70kg of honey annually, and are mild-mannered.
Kenyan beekeepers, meanwhile, are actively advised to copy Western practices as little as possible. As one researcher put it: the wild Kenyan bees have their own resistance. "It would be a mistake to mess with that." The way beekeeping is done in the West "has eroded the genetic pool through commercial breeding of queens and propping up sick colonies through medication — colonies which would otherwise be long dead. For us, instead, it's survival of the fittest, and mother nature seems to be getting it right."
The lesson is not that suffering is good. The lesson is that when bees are allowed to adapt without chemical interference, they can develop resistance that no laboratory has been able to engineer. The treatment that is supposed to protect them is, in the long run, preventing the very adaptation that would save them.
What we can actually do
Stop using neonicotinoids at home. Not using any pesticides at all is the best way to help bees. Check labels for acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, or thiamethoxam.
Ask your nursery before you buy. Many ornamental plants sold at nurseries have been pre-treated with neonicotinoids before they reach the shelf. Ask whether their plants have been treated, and let them know as a consumer that you want only neonicotinoid-free plants.
Plant native wildflowers. A garden with even a small patch of native wildflowers — particularly those that bloom at different times of year — provides chemical-free forage that supports the nutritional health of local colonies.
Buy organic where you can. Organic farming prohibits synthetic neonicotinoids. Every organic purchase reduces the market for the pesticides causing the most damage.
Support the Xerces Society. The Xerces Society is one of the leading organizations in pollinator protection — conducting research, advocating for policy change, and providing resources for habitat restoration. At Bow to the Bee, a portion of every purchase is donated to the Xerces Society.
The question worth sitting with
The Northern Hemisphere doubled down on chemical treatment. The Southern Hemisphere, largely out of necessity, did not. One path produced resistant mites and escalating colony collapse. The other produced bees that learned, adapted, and survived.
The bee does not need more chemicals. The bee needs less interference.
That is true at the scale of industrial agriculture. It is also true in your garden.
At Bow to the Bee, we practice natural beekeeping — no chemicals, no extraction, no disruption. A portion of every purchase supports the Xerces Society for pollinator conservation.
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