Bees reached the US endangered species list for the first time in 2016. On 30 September that year, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bee as endangered, with protection starting on 31 October 2016. A few months later, on 10 January 2017, the rusty patched bumble bee became the first bumble bee in the country, and the first bee of any kind in the contiguous 48 states, to be listed.
These decisions were widely described as a wake-up call. They did not mean that all bees are about to vanish, and the honey bees kept by beekeepers are not endangered. They did show that some wild bees, which do much of the quiet work of pollinating plants, have declined to the point where the law now treats their survival as at risk. Here is what happened, why these bees are in trouble and what has changed since.
Hawaii's yellow-faced bees: the first to be protected
Hawaii is home to dozens of native bee species in the genus Hylaeus, small and mostly black insects often called yellow-faced bees because of the pale markings on many males' faces. They evolved on the islands and pollinate native plants, some of which are rare themselves.
The seven species listed in 2016 are Hylaeus anthracinus, H. assimulans, H. facilis, H. hilaris, H. kuakea, H. longiceps and H. mana. They were included in a larger rule covering 49 Hawaiian species. The threats named in that rule include the loss and degradation of native habitat to development, feral grazing animals, invasive plants and wildfire, as well as predation by non-native ants and wasps, competition from introduced bees, drought and, for the coastal species, the risk of a tsunami wiping out small populations.
The Xerces Society, a US invertebrate conservation group, had petitioned for their protection years earlier. Hawaiian state entomologist Cynthia King was reported at the time as saying "the bees were doing a lot worse than we thought" when surveys were repeated.
The rusty patched bumble bee
The rusty patched bumble bee, Bombus affinis, takes its name from the reddish-brown patch on the back of a worker's abdomen. It was once common across 28 states, from Connecticut to South Dakota, plus the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces. When the Fish and Wildlife Service listed it in 2017, it said the bee's abundance had fallen by 87%, leaving small, scattered populations in 13 states and Ontario, with the steepest losses since the late 1990s. Canada had already assessed it as endangered in 2010.
The Xerces Society had petitioned for a US listing in January 2013. The Service proposed listing it in the autumn of 2016, which is when the first headlines appeared, and the final rule took effect on 10 February 2017.
The story continued. On 29 May 2026 the Service finalised critical habitat for the species: about 1.5 million acres in 33 counties across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Critical habitat does not turn land into a reserve, but it means federal agencies must consider the bee when they fund or approve projects there.
Why bees are declining
There is no single culprit. For the rusty patched bumble bee, the Service pointed to a combination of habitat loss, disease and parasites, pesticides, climate change and the danger of very small populations. Researchers also suspect pathogen spillover, diseases passing into wild populations, played a major part in its crash. The US Environmental Protection Agency gives a similar list for pollinators in general, adding poor nutrition and low genetic diversity.
Neonicotinoid insecticides get particular attention. They were introduced in the 1990s and 2000s and are often used as seed coatings. A 2016 study in Nature Communications analysed 18 years of records for 62 wild bee species in England and found that species that forage on oilseed rape, a crop commonly grown from treated seed, declined about three times more than species that do not. The authors stressed that the link is a correlation. Field and laboratory studies on honey bees have produced mixed results, but in 2018 the European Food Safety Authority concluded that most outdoor uses pose a risk to bees, and the EU banned three main neonicotinoids outdoors that year.
One correction to a claim that circulated with this story: the main neonicotinoids were developed and sold by Bayer, Syngenta and Sumitomo Chemical, not Monsanto. Bayer did later buy Monsanto, in 2018.
Why it matters for food and nature
Bumble bees are especially good pollinators. They can "buzz pollinate", vibrating flowers to shake loose pollen, which helps crops such as tomatoes, peppers and cranberries. The Fish and Wildlife Service notes that even plants that can pollinate themselves produce more and larger fruit when bumble bees visit.
In the United States, pollination by insects, mostly bees, is worth an estimated $3 billion a year according to the Service. Wild bees matter beyond farms too: many native plants rely on them, and the birds and animals that eat those plants' seeds and fruit depend on that chain staying intact. Losing a single bee species will not collapse the food system, but steady declines across many species weaken it in ways that are hard to reverse.
Common myths about bees
"Honey bees are going extinct." Honey bees are managed livestock and are not endangered, though beekeepers do face heavy winter losses from mites and disease. The species in real danger are wild bees.
"Pesticides alone are killing bees." Pesticides are one serious pressure, but habitat loss, disease, parasites and climate change all play a part, and they often make each other worse.
"Keeping honey bees helps wild bees." Not necessarily. Large numbers of hives may compete with wild bees for flowers and may spread disease to them.
What helps bees
- Plant a mix of native flowers that bloom from early spring to late autumn, so bees have food all season.
- Reduce or avoid insecticides in gardens, especially on plants in flower.
- Leave some bare ground, dead stems and leaf litter: many native bees nest in the soil or in hollow stems, and bumble bee queens overwinter under leaves.
- Support local conservation groups and take part in community bee counts, which help scientists track where rare species still survive.
In Hawaii, conservation teams have reportedly tried artificial nest boxes designed to keep ants out, alongside work to restore native coastal plants. For the rusty patched bumble bee, the new critical habitat should focus attention on the few places it still lives. The listings of 2016 and 2017 were not the end of the story, but the start of a long effort to bring these bees back.
Sources: Federal Register, 30 September 2016: endangered status for 49 Hawaiian species; USFWS, 10 January 2017; USFWS, 29 May 2026; EPA: Pollinator health concerns; Wikipedia: Rusty patched bumble bee; Woodcock et al., Nature Communications (2016); Wikipedia: Neonicotinoid; The Xerces Society.
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