Neonicotinoid insecticides cause sublethal neurological effects in bees including impaired navigation, reduced foraging efficiency, and disrupted social behaviour. Emergency authorisations in the UK continue to allow some neonicotinoid use despite restrictions.
Bees exposed to sublethal neonicotinoid doses experience neurological impairment that prevents them from returning to their colony, effectively causing them to be lost. Colony-level impacts include reduced forager survival, fewer queens produced, and impaired colony development. The suffering of individual bees unable to find their way home represents both direct welfare harm and indirect harm through colony disruption and starvation.