Insect and Pesticide Research

Honey bee populations worldwide have declined sharply over recent decades, and researchers are working to untangle the web of stressors responsible — chief among them neonicotinoid insecticides, parasitic Varroa mites, and viral pathogens that often act in combination rather than in isolation. Scientists examine how pesticide exposure disrupts bee physiology at the level of the nervous system, immune function, and gut microbiota, since a compromised microbiome can leave colonies more vulnerable to infection and less able to detoxify chemical residues. Colony collapse disorder, in which worker bees disappear en masse, sits at the center of this work as a phenomenon that resists any single explanation and demands an integrated understanding of environmental, biological, and agricultural pressures. Active research is now probing how pollen nutrition buffers — or fails to buffer — bees against these combined threats, and how pesticide residues move through ecosystems to reach non-target species beyond the hive.

Works

108,490

Total citations

1,364,637

Keywords

NeonicotinoidsHoney BeesColony Collapse DisorderPesticide ExposureVarroa MitesGut Microbiota