[Valpal1]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2013/04/11/science-collapse-disorder-the-real-story-behind-neonics-and-mass-bee-deaths/

As the British Bee Keeper Association recently warned, rushing to ban neonics, when the evidence remains contradictory, could well do more damage than good, as other pesticides, some known to be more harmful to bees, would of necessity be reintroduced.

[B4Ranch]

On the use of pesticides:

Last week I awoke to ants crawling all over the walkway at my doorstep. I had read a few months ago to put Diatomaceous earth on the entrances to the ants nests. Guess what? It works! I haven’t seen a single ant since I put it on the entrances to their nest.

[IncPen]

is one of some 1,300 commercial beekeepers from across the United States who migrate to California each year, along with nearly 2 million hives, for the single largest pollination event in the world

It seems that, at the very least, part of the problem has to be the stress of being the linchpin of the commercial pollination industry. The industry is focused on honey production (for the hive owners), and following after the crop cycles of almonds, fruits, and so on.

Bees, for a species that until 130 years ago was content to live in hollow logs to have been domesticated and forced to carry the burden of producing the world's food supply from artificially created homes, some of this is not unexpected.