Tell Bayer: Protect our country’s pollinators

They were once common across North America, floating above grasslands and city parks from the Pacific to the Atlantic. But today, the American bumblebee is in steep decline — and the species could be in danger of disappearing for good.¹

Neonicotinoid pesticides kill bees.

In the past few decades, American bumblebee populations across the United States have dropped by around 90%, with the bees disappearing altogether from eight states entirely.¹ The American bumblebee is facing an emergency — and we need to act to protect it.

This bumblebee’s decline is linked to the use of bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. So we’re calling on one of the country’s largest pesticide manufacturers, Bayer, to do right by our bees and stop making and selling neonics.

Where once it was common, the American bumblebee is now nowhere to be found.

In states in the Midwest and Southeast, 1 out of 2 of these bees has disappeared in recent years. In New York, the decline is even more dramatic, with a shocking 99% of the bumblebees having disappeared from the state.²

And in Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming and Oregon, the bumblebees have disappeared entirely.³

This disappearance is impacting the ecosystems these bumblebees are leaving behind. American bumblebees are crucial pollinators for a number of crop and wildflower plants, meaning their disappearance is depriving a range of plants of a crucial piece of their reproduction cycle.⁴

A number of threats are endangering this species, including climate change, habitat destruction, disease and competition from non-native species.

But one trend stands above the rest: The states that saw the greatest decline in American bumblebee numbers were also the ones that saw the largest increase in the usage of pesticides like neonicotinoids.⁵

And American bumblebees aren’t the only ones suffering.

Neonicotinoid pesticides, including those manufactured by Bayer, have contributed to making America’s agricultural landscape nearly 50 times more toxic to honeybees and other pollinators than it was just a few decades ago.⁶

Our pollinators need protection from these bee-killing pesticides.

As one of the largest manufacturers of pesticides in the country, Bayer can make a difference.

Take action to tell Bayer to save the bees.

We’re protecting more than just our fuzzy pollinators when we protect bees. As many as 75% of food crops and 90% of wild flowering plants rely on pollinators for reproduction.⁷

Imagine what the world would look like without pollinators like bees. Imagine a world without flowers, a world where goods like coffee and most fruits are rare luxuries, if they exist at all. All these things rely on bees.

We can’t risk losing all that we would lose if we fail to protect the bees.

We have to protect these crucial pollinators.

1. Elizabeth Gamillo, “The American Bumblebee Has Nearly Vanished From Eight States,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 6, 2021.
2. Elizabeth Gamillo, “The American Bumblebee Has Nearly Vanished From Eight States,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 6, 2021. 
3. Elizabeth Gamillo, “The American Bumblebee Has Nearly Vanished From Eight States,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 6, 2021.
4. Elizabeth Gamillo, “The American Bumblebee Has Nearly Vanished From Eight States,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 6, 2021.
5. Elizabeth Gamillo, “The American Bumblebee Has Nearly Vanished From Eight States,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 6, 2021.
6. Stephen Leahy, “Insect ‘apocalypse’ in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides,” National Geographic, August 6, 2019.
7. “Pollinators vital to our food supply under threat,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, February 26, 2016.

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