Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes

Sustainable agriculture requires balancing crop yields with the efects of pesticideson non-target organisms, such as bees and other crop pollinators. Field studiesdemonstrated that agricultural use of neonicotinoid insecticides can negatively afectwild bee species1,2, leading to restrictions on these compounds3. However, besidesneonicotinoids, feld-based evidence of the efects of landscape pesticide exposureon wild bees is lacking. Bees encounter many pesticides in agricultural landscapes4-9and the efects of this landscape exposure on colony growth and development of anybee species remains unknown. Here we show that the many pesticides found in bumblebee-collected pollen are associated with reduced colony performance during cropbloom, especially in simplifed landscapes with intensive agricultural practices. Ourresults from 316 Bombus terrestris colonies at 106 agricultural sites across eightEuropean countries confrm that the regulatory system fails to sufciently preventpesticide-related impacts on non-target organisms, even for a eusocial pollinatorspecies in which colony size may bufer against such impacts10,11. These fndingssupport the need for postapproval monitoring of both pesticide exposure and efectsto confrm that the regulatory process is sufciently protective in limiting the collateralenvironmental damage of agricultural pesticide use.