Managed honey bees and wild pollinators provide essential ecosystem services but face welfare threats from pesticide exposure, parasite pressure, and habitat loss that require integrated pest management responses.
Pollinator welfare operates across multiple scales simultaneously: individual bee welfare, colony-level health, and population-level abundance of both managed and wild species. Individual bees exposed to sublethal pesticide doses experience impaired navigation, learning, and reproductive function before death — welfare harms that are real even when not immediately fatal. Colony-level Varroa mite burden creates chronic disease and individual suffering in millions of bees per colony. Wild pollinator population declines reflect cumulative habitat and pesticide pressures that reduce individual welfare and population resilience simultaneously. Integrated pest management that minimizes pesticide exposure while maintaining agricultural productivity is the primary systemic intervention.