--- 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: 2026-02-21T07:50:40.648Z 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 by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video May 14, 2014 10:46 PM UTC  Getty Images / Joe Raedle 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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/100011/pesticides-are-killing-bees/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/100011/pesticides-are-killing-bees/"},"headline":"Study: Pesticides Cause Colony Collapse Disorder in Honeybees","datePublished":"2014-05-14T22:46:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:50:40.648Z","description":"Humans may be the cause of the massive decline in honey bee populations.","url":"https://time.com/100011/pesticides-are-killing-bees/","keywords":["Environment"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cc3caf2266b9bea/69868f6b06f2c1761b32ee0e/image12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cc3caf2266b9bea/69868f6b06f2c1761b32ee0e/image12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"HoneyBees","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images / Joe Raedle","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/100011/pesticides-are-killing-bees/","name":"Study: Pesticides Cause Colony Collapse Disorder in Honeybees"}}]}] ```