Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes

Sustainable agriculture requires balancing crop yields with the efects of pesticides on non-target organisms, such as bees and other crop pollinators. Field studies demonstrated that agricultural use of neonicotinoid insecticides can negatively afect wild bee species1,2 , leading to restrictions on these compounds3 . However, besides neonicotinoids, feld-based evidence of the efects of landscape pesticide exposure on wild bees is lacking. Bees encounter many pesticides in agricultural landscapes4-9 and the efects of this landscape exposure on colony growth and development of any bee species remains unknown. Here we show that the many pesticides found in bumble bee-collected pollen are associated with reduced colony performance during crop bloom, especially in simplifed landscapes with intensive agricultural practices. Our results from 316 Bombus terrestris colonies at 106 agricultural sites across eight European countries confrm that the regulatory system fails to sufciently prevent pesticide-related impacts on non-target organisms, even for a eusocial pollinator species in which colony size may bufer against such impacts10,11. These fndings support the need for postapproval monitoring of both pesticide exposure and efects to confrm that the regulatory process is sufciently protective in limiting the collateral environmental damage of agricultural pesticide use.