In bee decline, fungicides emerge as improbable villain

When a team of scientists analyzed two dozen environmental factors to understand bumblebee population declines and range contractions, they expected to find stressors like changes in land use, geography or insecticides. Instead, they found a shocker: fungicides, commonly thought to have no impact. While science has studied insecticides, such as neonicotinoids, that attack bugs' central nervous systems, this new work shows how fungicides -- particularly chlorothalonil, a general-use fungicide often found in bumblebee and honeybee hives -- may negatively affect bee health, said McArt, a fellow at Cornell's Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.