One in three bites of food consumed by every person in the country depends on pollinators—bees—to come to fruition. Yet, commercial beekeepers have reported that, on average, they lost 62 percent of their bee colonies from June 2024 to February 2025. That means 1.1 million colonies were lost from late summer through winter, accounting for 41 percent of the total bee colonies in the United States. Experts have no idea what is causing the loss of these fantastic creatures—who navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field and are sensitive to electromagnetic fields (EMFs)—and warn a catastrophic loss could happen again. Hmm.

Following a February 2025 survey of beekeepers across the nation conducted by the nonprofit organization Project Apis m., over a dozen academic and government scientists have now convened to search for the cause. As reported by USRTK, the survey results are similar to data reported in 2024 by the USDA, which has reported bee colony losses ranging from 933,000 colonies to nearly 1.3 million colonies from July through March for the last ten years. Danielle Downey, executive director of Project Apis m, remarked that she feels certain those numbers underestimate the actual losses. In August 2024, Chris Hiatt, president of the American Honey Producers Association (AHPA), spoke of the devastating losses, stating:

“It’s so hard to keep them alive. We just expect we’re going to lose 40 to 50 percent. Over the last 20 years, it gets worse and worse. It seems like it doesn’t matter what you do to try to keep the bees alive.”

Even though beekeepers are used to losing a portion of their bees each year, the start of the 2025 almond pollination season was met with “unprecedented colony losses,” which have stunned the beekeeping industry. To find out what was happening, Project Apis m. conducted a widespread survey to “assess the breadth and severity” of bee colony die-offs in the U.S. They collected data from 702 beekeepers responsible for roughly 1.835 million colonies, or nearly 68 percent of the nation’s bees. Survey responses indicated the beekeepers lost an estimated $224.8 million in colonies alone. Yet, as reported by Project Apis m., this estimate is based on $200 per colony and is a conservative replacement cost that excludes labor, feed, and treatments to maintain them. When considering beekeepers who did not respond to the survey, the nonprofit estimates $634.7 million in lost bee colonies. In a heartbreaking reply, an anonymous beekeeper shared with the survey:

“What do back-to-back losses mean? We already bought back in. We borrowed from our house, from our retirement, from family. We borrowed to keep the business going. Now those bees are gone. This is what it means to have back-to-back losses on a farm. We took a large loss two years ago. We borrowed against our long-term investments to buy back into bees. We ran our bees again. We focused on their health. We asked for help. We did what we were supposed to do. But when the losses hit again, there is no way to recover. It’s all gone. The equity on the house is gone, our retirement is gone, the family member’s money is gone. All that’s left are empty boxes. We don’t even have the dead bees. They are gone too.”

What is behind the loss of our nation’s beloved bees? Of course, dangerous pesticides are partly to blame. So is urban sprawl and movements to ban honey bees from public lands (yes, according to Project Apis m., that is really happening), which decreases forage for bees. Preliminary sampling of live and dead bees has not shown a cause. Thus, a team of at least 16 scientists from universities and the USDA are searching for answers. Project Apis m.’s survey examined whether the bees were stored indoors or outdoors over winter, whether queens had been replaced in lost colonies, whether beekeepers had supplemented their nutrition, and how many colonies were afflicted by Varroa mites. For each of these variables, no clear pattern emerged.

According to USRTK, the researchers will analyze bee samples for pathogens, pesticide residues, microbiome, host-pathogen interactions, and metagenomic analysis over the next few months. In 2023, which is the most recent full year for which data were available, the leading cause of bee loss was the infestation of Varroa mites, followed by other pests and parasites, pesticides, diseases, and factors such as weather, starvation, queen failure, and insufficient forage.

Though not mentioned by Project Apis m. (which is incredibly surprising), bees are also increasingly exposed to artificial, low-frequency EMF (from overhead power lines and cell phone towers, for example). Could this contribute to colony loss? Importantly, because bees have magnetoreceptors in their bodies—like magnetite in their abdomens and cryptochromes in their brains, help them navigate using Mother Earth’s magnetic field—EMFs are a significant stressor on bees, altering the magnetic maps they use during foraging flights and navigation. Indeed, there is strong evidence that the omnipresent signals from Wi-Fi and other EMFs interfere with bee behavior. Wake up, people. In an article titled “Bee-ware: How Wi-Fi Signals May Impact Honey Bee Behavior,” environmental scientist and conservationist Zuhaib Ali shared his views on the critical bee conundrum that impacts all of life, noting:

“There is reason to be concerned about the health of these important pollinators given the findings pointing to a possible influence of Wi-Fi radiation on honey bee activity. While more investigation is necessary to completely comprehend the mechanisms at work, precautionary steps to reduce potential hazards are necessary.

Our ecosystems are delicately balanced, and we can protect honey bee populations by raising awareness, putting buffer zones in place, and encouraging sustainable behaviors. Let’s work to build a future in which bees and humans coexist peacefully with the natural world.”