Home›Open Questions›What caused colony collapse disorder, the abrupt disappearance of worker bees from managed hives reported at scale from 2006?Open QuestionsWhat caused colony collapse disorder, the abrupt disappearance of worker bees from managed hives reported at scale from 2006?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextAgriculture and Farming Atlas. "What caused colony collapse disorder, the abrupt disappearance of worker bees from managed hives reported at scale from 2006?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://agriculture.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/colony-collapse-disorder-cause.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextAgriculture and Farming Atlas. (n.d.). What caused colony collapse disorder, the abrupt disappearance of worker bees from managed hives reported at scale from 2006?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://agriculture.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/colony-collapse-disorder-causeCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{agricultureandfarmingatlas-what-caused-colony-collapse-disorder-the, author = {Agriculture and Farming Atlas}, title = {What caused colony collapse disorder, the abrupt disappearance of worker bees from managed hives reported at scale from 2006?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://agriculture.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/colony-collapse-disorder-cause}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXReference and ClassificationDevelopingFactsOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)FactsWhy OpenWell-attestedNo single cause has been established despite nearly two decades of investigation. The leading candidates, Varroa mites and the viruses they carry, neonicotinoid and other pesticide exposures, poor nutrition from monoculture forage, pathogens such as Nosema, and interactions among all of these, each explain some collapses and fail to explain others, and the syndrome's defining sign, workers vanishing while brood and stores remain, resists a clean single-agent account. 1What Would ResolveWell-attestedControlled studies able to reproduce the specific abandonment syndrome under defined combinations of stressors, or field epidemiology strong enough to assign relative weights to the candidate factors rather than merely listing them. 1Discipline NeededWell-attestedEntomology, Agroecology, Toxicology 1Open QuestionNo single cause has been established despite nearly two decades of investigation. The leading candidates, Varroa mites and the viruses they carry, neonicotinoid and other pesticide exposures, poor nutrition from monoculture forage, pathogens such as Nosema, and interactions among all of these, each explain some collapses and fail to explain others, and the syndrome's defining sign, workers vanishing while brood and stores remain, resists a clean single-agent account.What would resolve this Controlled studies able to reproduce the specific abandonment syndrome under defined combinations of stressors, or field epidemiology strong enough to assign relative weights to the candidate factors rather than merely listing them.OpenEntomology, Agroecology, ToxicologyColony Collapse Disorder (Wikipedia)Cross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnWestern Honey Bee, Livestock Well-attested Source Colony Collapse Disorder (Wikipedia)Sources1. Colony Collapse Disorder (Wikipedia)Wikimedia FoundationPossible causes section; multifactorial explanationsView the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year