Wild bees disappearing: Are we spraying pesticides out of fear of stings?

Wild bees are rapidly disappearing, highlighting the need for comprehensive countermeasures. Courtesy of Lee Heung-sik

May 20 marks World Bee Day, designated by the United Nations in 2017 to raise awareness about the critical role bees play in protecting ecosystems. Since the first report of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in Florida in 2006 — a phenomenon where honeybees suddenly vanish without a trace — similar incidents have emerged around the world, including in Korea.

While CCD is most commonly associated with domesticated honeybees, including both the Western species and Korea’s native variety, concern is growing over the sharp and largely overlooked decline of wild bee populations — bees not bred or managed by humans.

Despite their ecological importance as pollinators and biodiversity indicators, wild bees have received minimal attention in research and policy compared to managed honeybee populations.

Lee Heung-sik, an agricultural researcher at the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency and co-leader of a bee conservation group, has been studying Korea’s wild bees for over two decades. He shared insights into the crisis.

Over 90 percent decline in some areas

“We haven’t done nearly enough research or fieldwork on wild bees in Korea,” Lee said. Based on surveys conducted in accessible areas like urban ecological parks and farmland, wild bee populations appear to have declined by more than 90 percent.

“In urban parks, we’re seeing sharp declines in both hornet and flower bee species,” Lee said. “This is linked to people’s fear and aversion toward bees — colonies are often exterminated or sprayed with insecticides. In farmlands, strong pesticides have made bees nearly impossible to find.”

Lee emphasized that not only population size, but also species diversity is collapsing. “We don’t even have a baseline of what species used to live in certain areas, which makes the loss even more alarming.”

Lee Heung-sik, an agricultural researcher at the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency and co-head of a wild bee conservation group, photographs a wild bee. Courtesy of Lee Heung-sik

No monitoring, no diagnosis

Although CCD is not officially observed in wild bees, Lee believes the absence of data doesn’t mean the problem isn’t there.

“Species like hornets and bumblebees form social colonies similar to honeybees, but we don’t monitor them regularly,” he said. “So CCD simply goes undetected. What we do know is that both species numbers and population sizes are declining to a serious degree.”

He stressed that the lack of research into wild bee collapse is itself a crisis: “We can’t even recognize the problem if we don’t look for it.”

Why wild bees matter

Unlike domesticated honeybees, which are legally classified as livestock and receive government funding and oversight, wild bees are unmanaged and mostly invisible to public awareness and policy. “They’re vanishing, but only a small group of people even notice,” Lee said.

Wild bees play a critical role in maintaining biodiversity. Through co-evolution with local plants, they are essential to the pollination of endangered native flora.

They also serve as natural predators that regulate pest populations and form a key part of the ecological food web.

One species of particular concern is the Chamhobak Bumblebee (Bombus koreanus), classified as a Class II endangered species in Korea.

“Its numbers have declined so rapidly that it’s now extremely difficult to find,” Lee said. He and fellow bee conservation civic group members actively track and document sightings.

A Chamhobak bumblebee, classified as a Level 2 endangered species, spotted at the Korea National Arboretum. Courtesy of Lee Heung-sik

What needs to change

“Wild bees have coexisted with humanity throughout history. They’re not just incidental creatures; they are vital to the reproduction of flowering plants and, by extension, human agriculture,” Lee said.

He called for policies that reduce fear and hostility toward bees, beginning with public education. “We need to stop killing innocent bees with pesticides.”

About 70 percent of wild bees nest underground. “If we keep covering everything in concrete, they simply have nowhere to live," he said. “Wild bees are like the air — invisible, essential and easy to overlook until it’s too late,” Lee said. “We need to act now before they disappear entirely.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.