Many of our readers have probably heard about the alarming number of honeybee colony deaths in California in early 2025. We wanted to provide a brief summary of what’s happening, then discuss how to protect pollinators – and increase their numbers – in our own gardens.
Around 60% of commercial honeybee colonies in the US have died in the first months of 2025, according to a survey by the beekeeping nonprofit Project Apis m. The die-off happened in February, during almond pollination season. Almond pollination is a massive effort in which more than 2 million honeybee colonies – about 70% of the US total – are shipped from around the United States to California for 3-4 weeks. 2 million colonies seems like a lot, but it takes 2 colonies – roughly 80,000 bees – to pollinate one acre of almond trees, and there are 1.4 million acres of almond orchards in California – which grows about 80% of the world’s almonds.
These colony deaths will harm almond production of course, but they’ll also be devastating for the US commercial fruit industry. After pollinating almond trees, beekeepers ship their colonies to the Pacific Northwest and Midwest to pollinate fruit trees. The bees then go to the Northeast to pollinate blueberries, to Florida to pollinate citrus trees, and finally to the Dakotas for commercial honey and beeswax production. (North Dakota produces the most honey of any state by far.) Overall, about 35% of all food crops are directly dependent on pollinators.
Looking forward, the view is even more grim. Commercial beekeepers charge per colony for pollination services. If they lose on average 60% of their revenue this year, it might be hard for many beekeepers to stay in business. This means that it could become difficult for almond and fruit farmers to find bees in the first place. At the very least, a bee shortage would drive up the cost of pollinator-dependent foods.
Why are so many honeybee colonies dying right now? The short answer is that we don’t know yet. Researchers at the USDA and Cornell University are comparing samples from living and dead colonies to look for possible causes, like insecticides, the infamous varroa mite, and viruses. It’s possible that the mites have developed resistance to miticides, a risk posed by any overuse of pesticides. Washington State University researchers have also suggested that nutritional deficiencies might be to blame.
The good news is that the colony deaths are so far happening only at large-scale commercial beekeeping operations. Local beekeepers and honey producers, and backyard hobbyists, probably have nothing new to worry about. Similarly, those of us who depend on wild pollinators for our gardens will most likely be okay. Nevertheless, the bee die-off in California in early 2025 is a good reminder that we should never take pollinators for granted. Below are some recommended practices that will protect pollinators, and increase the number of pollinators, in our localities.
Protecting pollinators
On paper, protecting pollinators – both bees and other insects, like butterflies – is easy: don’t expose pollinators to insecticides. (Remember that even organic insecticides can harm pollinators.) In practice, it’s not always so easy to balance protecting pollinators and protecting our crops from insect damage. Integrated Pest Management principles – described in this article by Cathy Caldwell and in this VCE publication – are a good framework for thinking about how to achieve this balance. The basic idea is to use the least harmful or invasive method to achieve desired goals.
So if at all possible, avoid insecticides. Instead, prevent insect infestations with non-chemical methods. First, employ cultural controls. Scrupulously clean up plant debris at the end of the growing season to deny insects a spot to overwinter. Rotate crops so they’re not growing near insect pests that do manage to survive the winter. Next, use physical methods. Lightweight row covers can keep harmful insects away from leafy vegetables that don’t need pollination. Scout your plants for insect eggs and larvae and remove any that you find. Finally, biological controls might be useful. Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis, is a bacterium that secretes a toxic protein that kills many insect larvae. Different Bt strains attack different insect species, so be sure to identify your pest(s) before trying Bt. (Ralph Morini’s article describing common garden pests and how to identify them is a good place to start.) This document from NC State details these and other non-chemical insect control methods.
If an infestation is so severe that it requires chemical controls, there are two primary ways to avoid harming pollinators. First, timing: don’t apply insecticides to flowering plants. If this absolutely cannot be avoided – for example, on indeterminate tomatoes that flower continuously – apply in the evening or even after dark, when pollinators are less active. Second, insecticide choice: use insecticides that are less toxic to bees. Neonicotinoid insecticides are the most notorious bee-killers, but many other insecticides have high toxicity towards bees. The VCE Pest Management Guide contains a nice chart that lists the bee toxicity of common insecticides (pages 1-34 through 1-36). The University of California has a searchable website of many chemicals’ bee toxicity – but please note that only chemicals listed in the VCE Pest Management Guide can be used in Virginia. For more information, consult the “Protecting Honey Bees” section of the VCE Pest Management Guide, starting on page 1-29.
Attracting pollinators
Increase the number of pollinators around your garden by creating habitats for pollinators. For a detailed description of how to do this, I highly recommend Deb Harriman’s comprehensive guide to pollinator gardening. Below are a few tips from this and other publications.
First, reduce the size of lawns. Turfgrass, especially when it’s cut short, doesn’t provide much if any benefit to pollinators. If, like me, you enjoy having a lawn, consider allowing a little bit of clover to grow among the grass. Not only will the flowers attract bees, but the clover will fertilize the grass by fixing atmospheric nitrogen into a bio-available form.
Next, grow mostly native plants. Natives are more likely than non-natives to provide habitat for native pollinators. This is not a hard and fast rule of course: Deb points out that bumblebees, native to North America, are perfectly happy to feed on the nectar of European herbs. But if you’d like to plant more natives, Albemarle County hosts a native plant finder for Piedmont Virginia. The National Wildlife Federation has a native plant finder that covers a wider geographical range. Be sure to choose a diverse set of plants, with flowering times throughout the year, to provide nourishment for as many pollinator species as possible. Also, consider that pollinators’ larvae, in particular caterpillars, need food as well. Doug Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park project has lists, organized by ecoregion, of trees and shrubs that are good food sources for caterpillars. (Fair warning: Dr. Tallamy really likes oak trees.)
Third, provide physical habitat for pollinator nests. Most native bees nest in the ground. Uncompacted, well-drained soil is the ideal habitat for ground-nesting bees, so try to create areas in your landscape with plenty of organic matter in the soil. As Fern Campbell has pointed out, simply leaving fallen leaves to decay and incorporate into the soil is an easy way to achieve this. If possible, leave a few stumps and fallen branches on the ground; these will also provide habitat for bees that like to burrow into wood.
Finally, creating a pollinator garden in containers is a great option if you’re limited for space. Tufts University has a wonderful guide with details about plant and container choice.
Closing thoughts
Bee die-offs aren’t a new occurrence. Those of us of a certain age might remember “Colony Collapse Disorder,” which got a lot of publicity starting in 2006. Almost 20 years later, there’s still no known cause. Similarly, we may never know what caused the enormous number of bee deaths in early 2025. My non-expert guess is that the many phenomena – pesticides, mites, diseases – that can put stress on bee colonies are each contributing at least a little. In any event, one lesson we can learn from the current crisis is that we can’t take pollinators for granted, both in large commercial farms and in home gardens. Especially in our own gardening practices, there’s a lot we can do to protect pollinators and create attractive pollinator habitats – both for our own benefit and that of our neighbors.
References and further reading
Featured image: Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
Bee Precaution Pesticide Ratings University of California
Bacillus thuringiensis National Pesticide Information Center
The Business of Bees EarthDate, Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin
Colony Collapse Disorder History USDA Agricultural Research Service
Container Gardening for Pollinators Tufts Pollinator Initiative
Cornell to help pinpoint cause of massive honeybee die-offs Cornell Chronicle
Eleven Garden Pests: Identification and Management Ralph Morini
Honey bee colony declines grow as WSU researchers work to fight losses Washington State University
Integrated Pest Management Cathy Caldwell
An Introduction to Integrated Pest Management Virginia Cooperative Extension
Keeping Beekeepers Buzzing: Addressing Industry Concerns Project Apis.m
Leave the Leaves; They’re a Gift for Your Garden Fern Campbell
Managing Varroa Mites in Honeybee Colonies NC State Extension
Native Plant Finder National Wildlife Federation
Pest Management North Carolina Extension Gardener Handbook
2025 Pest Management Guide – Home Grounds and Animals Virginia Cooperative Extension
Piedmont Native Plants Database Albemarle County, Virginia
Plant a Pollinator Paradise Deborah Harriman
Row Covers: A Gardening Season-Extender with Benefits Ralph Morini
Tree Nuts: World Markets and Trade USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
Where Have All the Honey Bees Gone? To California Almond Orchards Brittany Goodrich and Allison Altschuler, Dept. of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign