What’s making the bees all sick and killing them, too?

Question

What’s making the bees all sick and killing them, too?

Found in Biology.

Answer 1

Best evidence at the moment is that there are wide-spread infections of a disease carrying parasite, [varroa destructor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor). A family of modern insecticides, the neonicotinoids, makes the bees less resistant to the mites.

While the number of bee colonies that die annually has increased, reports of their disappearance are [greatly exaggerated](https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/rn301137d?locale=en).