Colony collapse disorder

Definition

Defined by the absence of adult bees rather than by dead ones, with brood and food left behind and no robbing by neighbouring colonies. It attracted enormous coverage, was probably multi-causal, and has largely faded from the literature as a distinct phenomenon.

Where the word gets used loosely

CCD became a catch-all term for any colony loss and for bee decline generally, which has done a great deal of damage to public understanding. Varroa and its viruses are a separate, older, better-characterised and far more consistently lethal problem — and neither is the cause of wild bee decline, which is driven by habitat loss, agricultural intensification and pesticides.

Guide records that discuss this

• Varroa and the health of a honey bee colonyOne parasitic mite explains most of what has gone wrong for managed honey bees in the last forty years. It is not a mystery, it is not colony collapse disorder, and it is not the reason wild bees are declining.
• The threats facing beesBee decline is not one problem with one cause. It is a set of interacting pressures whose relative weight differs between managed honey bees and wild species — and confusing the two produces bad solutions.
• Pollinator decline: what is actually happeningSeveral real problems get merged into one story, and the merged version points at the wrong solutions. Untangling them changes what is worth doing.