I wonder how much of this might be due to the extent to which people are renting out their bees for agriculture over huge ranges. Not in terms of overall
quantity of pesticide exposure, but at least with respect to the large number of
types they get exposed to. It's been suggested that this practice may be greatly increasing their exposure to different kinds of diseases as well, and that this may be at least a partial explanation for
colony collapse disorder. But then, it's hard to tell to what extent CCD is even a real phenomenon. I think there probably is
something going on, but it's hard to say what.