Wild bee populations are in serious decline globally, with welfare implications for individual insects and ecological consequences for ecosystems.
Wild bee welfare encompasses both the experience of individual bees — whose capacity for pain-like states and stress responses is increasingly supported by research — and the population-level crisis that threatens the ecological functioning of ecosystems globally. Individual bees exposed to sublethal pesticide concentrations experience navigation impairment, reduced foraging success, and immune compromise that makes them more susceptible to disease. Colony-level impacts of pesticide exposure reduce reproductive success and increase winter mortality. The welfare harm of wild bee decline is thus experienced both individually and collectively, with consequences that extend to all species dependent on bee pollination services. Habitat restoration at scale represents the most impactful intervention for wild bee welfare, requiring both individual garden actions and systemic agricultural policy change.