Why a bunch of dead bees is terrible news for the economy

Bees add $15 billion of value to U.S. crops every year

Dead bees
(Image credit: Thinkstock)

The discovery of 25,000 dead bumblebees in an Oregon parking lot is a dramatic reminder that bee populations around the world are in big trouble. There are fewer domesticated honeybees now than at any time in the last 50 years, while the numbers of four species of bumblebees have dropped by 90 percent over the last few decades.

In this particular case, the culprit is probably pesticide sprayed on blooming European linden trees, which the bees were clustered around. Scott Hoffman Black, executive director at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, calls it the "largest known kill of bumblebees."

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Keith Wagstaff is a staff writer at TheWeek.com covering politics and current events. He has previously written for such publications as TIME, Details, VICE, and the Village Voice.