Neonicotinoid pesticides and other agrochemicals cause sublethal harm to bees and other pollinators, impairing navigation, memory, and reproduction even at field-realistic doses.
Pesticide harm to pollinators represents both an ecological crisis and a welfare concern for billions of individual insects. Bees exposed to sublethal doses of neonicotinoids show impaired foraging efficiency, reduced ability to navigate back to the hive, and impaired learning of floral odours. This causes individual suffering through disorientation and reduced feeding success, as well as population-level effects through reduced colony reproduction. The cognitive harm is particularly striking given growing evidence of insect sentience and the central importance of learning to bee survival.