My Turn: Save Massachusetts’ native bees

A rusty patched bumblebee

A rusty patched bumblebee DAN MULLEN/CREATIVE COMMONS

Published: 06-20-2025 11:06 AM

By JOHANNA NEUMANN

This week marks National Pollinator Week. This annual celebration in support of pollinator health reminds Americans how essential bees are to our environment and our lives, and what action we can take to protect these remarkable winged insects.

Native bee populations are declining

Just over 100 years ago, the rusty patched bumblebee was considered “common” in Massachusetts. Eight years ago, in 2017 it became the first bee to be listed as endangered. Since then, five bee species have been added to the endangered species list, including two in 2024, the Paranissa Miner Bee and the Macropis Cuckoo Bee. Today, one in four bumblebee species is vulnerable to extinction.

Massachusetts is home to around 380 species of bees. To protect them from extinction, they need safe habitats to continue buzzing from flower to flower. Local fruit, like raspberries, cranberries and apples, also need bees to flourish. According to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, more than 100 wild bees visit our orchards, often pollinating our fruits more efficiently and effectively than imported species.

So why are our native bee populations declining? Scientists point to disease, a changing climate, habitat loss, and a pesticide designed to kill insects as the leading causes.

Pesticides called neonics are devastating state’s bee populations

In the 1990s, a new class of insecticides called neonicotinoids (“neonics”) was introduced to the market. These pesticides are particularly toxic to pollinators. By the 2000s, the use of neonics skyrocketed when industry started routinely coating seeds with these pesticides. Today, EPA estimates that between 70-80% of corn, soybeans and cotton seeds are treated with bee-killing neonics.

Neonics have shown up in pesticide sprays for lawns, home gardens, and golf courses, but regulators reined in their use in 2021 after the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources released a scientific literature review finding overwhelming evidence that neonics are harming our state’s pollinators. The review found that 42 of the 43 impact-based studies cited neonics as a contributor to pollinator declines, The only study in their review that had mixed results was industry-funded.

While it’s encouraging that Massachusetts has taken some action to rein in bee-killing pesticides, we need to do more.

Restrict neonic-coated seeds

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According to the USDA, Massachusetts produced 11,000 acres of corn in 2023, a crop that typically uses neonic-coated seeds. And the list of other crops that use neonic-treated seeds continues to grow.

When seeds are coated with neonics, the plant soaks up the pesticides as it grows, making the plant itself — the nectar, pollen, leaves, stems, and fruit — toxic for pollinators such as bees. Adding insult to injury, any neonics that aren’t absorbed into the plant remain in the soil, where they can remain for years. Meanwhile, rain or irrigation water can easily carry the pesticides long distances. The result has been massive ecosystem contamination. A 2015 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found neonic pollution in more than half of the streams it sampled nationwide, with cascading ripple effects up and down the ecosystem. In 2023, EPA found that neonics are driving more than 200 threatened or endangered species toward extinction.

In response to these alarming studies, in 2023, two of our neighboring states, New York and Vermont, passed laws that require the presence of pest problems before neonic-coated seeds can be used.

But, bees are dying now and passing a new law can take years. That’s why Gov. Maura Healey should take action now to save bees by restricting the sale of neonic-coated seeds in Massachusetts. Just like the governor took action to commit the state to no longer purchase single-use plastic water bottles, and directed the state to set biodiversity goals, the governor can phase out the commercial sale of seeds coated in pesticides that are killing our vital pollinators. You can urge Gov. Healey to restrict the commercial sale of neonic-coated seeds by taking action here.

Bees can’t wait

Entire ecosystems depend on bees and other pollinators. The loss of bees is not just the loss of foods we love, but it also could be the destruction of diverse webs of life.

We need to move quickly to implement solutions to save the bees. I hope you’ll join me in urging Gov. Healey to rein in the misuse of the pesticides that are killing our vital pollinators — native bees — in our state.

Johanna Neumann of Amherst has spent the past two decades working to protect our air, water and open spaces, defend consumers in the marketplace and advance a more sustainable economy and democratic society. She can be reached at columnists@gazettenet.com.