--- title: Humanity Might be the Mysterious Bee Killer description: A new study from Harvard’s School of Public Health claims pesticides are causing the massive colony collapse disorder (CCD). canonical: https://time.com/100011/pesticides-are-killing-bees/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-14T22:46:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:52:46.591Z article:section: Science og:title: Humanity Might be the Mysterious Bee Killer og:description: A new study from Harvard’s School of Public Health claims pesticides are causing the massive colony collapse disorder (CCD) that has been rising in severity since 2006. og:url: https://time.com/100011/pesticides-are-killing-bees/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cc3caf2266b9bea/69868f6b06f2c1761b32ee0e/image12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: HoneyBees og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Humanity Might be the Mysterious Bee Killer twitter:description: A new study from Harvard’s School of Public Health claims pesticides are causing the massive colony collapse disorder (CCD) that has been rising in severity since 2006. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cc3caf2266b9bea/69868f6b06f2c1761b32ee0e/image12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Study: Pesticides Cause Colony Collapse Disorder in Honeybees > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=dd790926-b99b-4e61-9bad-752ec5947c68&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Pesticides Causing Colony Collapse Disorder In Honeybees: Study [Watch (HLS stream): Pesticides Causing Colony Collapse Disorder In Honeybees: Study](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gNbRsu6h.m3u8) (2:07)  _Published 2014-05-14. A new study from Harvard’s School of Public Health claims pesticides are causing honeybees to leave their hives and die off in large numbers._ by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video May 14, 2014 10:46 PM UTC A new study from Harvard’s School of Public Health claims pesticides are causing honeybees to leave their hives and die off in large numbers. by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video May 14, 2014 10:46 PM UTC Pesticides are the probable cause of massive colony collapse disorder (CCD), a new study from Harvard’s School of Public Health claims. On the rise since 2006, CCD works like this: Beekeepers suddenly discover that the hives they’re tending to have very few adult bees left in a colony, but there are no bodies. Essentially, the bees disappear from the colony and then die off en masse. This is a severe issue considering that one third of all food and beverages come from crops pollinated by honeybees. The study’s lead author Chensheng Lu say that more research needs to be conducted to figure out how exactly the pesticides are afflicting the bees. ## Transcript [00:00] Honeybees are leaving their hives en masse and [00:03] causing the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder, or [00:06] CCD, because of certain kinds of pesticides. That's [00:09] according to a new study out of Harvard School of [00:11] Public Health. The way Colony Collapse Disorder goes [00:13] down is reminiscent of a horror movie. A beekeeper [00:17] toddles out to a colony and finds only a few, if any, [00:20] adult bees in the hive, but there are no dead bee [00:24] bodies. A writer for Bloomberg reports those bee [00:26] deaths or disappearances first started getting attention [00:29] in 2006 when beekeepers began losing roughly a third [00:33] of their colonies, up from 15 % in previous years. [00:37] That's a big problem considering how important bees [00:39] are to our agricultural economy. The New York Times [00:42] reports honey bees pollinate hundreds of crops we [00:45] consume. To put that into perspective the USDA said in [00:48] 2013 one third of all food and beverages are made [00:52] possible by pollination. While there are many theories [00:55] about the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, like [00:58] pathogen infestation and beekeeping practices, [01:00] Harvard researchers concluded two kinds of [01:02] insecticides played a role in the onset of CCD. [01:06] Researchers studied 18 bee colonies in three locations [01:09] in Massachusetts from October 2012 through April [01:12] 2013. At each location researchers split the six [01:15] colonies into three groups, treating two with [01:18] insecticides and leaving one untreated. According to a [01:21] Harvard press release the insecticide treated colonies [01:23] saw populations begin dying off substantially by [01:26] January. By April half of the treaty colonies were lost. [01:30] The study's lead author who based the study off of his [01:33] previous research said, we demonstrated again in this [01:36] study that neonicotinoids, or the insecticides, are highly [01:40] likely to be responsible for triggering CCD in honey [01:42] bee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of [01:45] winter. And a Forbes writer said while the study isn't [01:48] conclusive it remains a compelling demonstration of [01:50] the potential impact of neonicotinoids on honeybees. [01:53] The study's lead author said the next step will be [01:55] figuring out how the insecticides affect the biological [01:58] mechanism of honeybees to cause them to leave, and [02:01] eventually reverse the trend. The study is published in [02:04] the Bulletin of Insectology. Thanks for watching. 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