Where are all the bees going?

It makes me feel a bit like we're living in the beginning of a bad apocalyptic movie: Bees are vanishing all over the United States, and no one knows why. In 24 states around the country, beekeepers have opened up their boxes to find tens of millions of bees simply missing. Other beekeepers open up ...

It makes me feel a bit like we're living in the beginning of a bad apocalyptic movie: Bees are vanishing all over the United States, and no one knows why. In 24 states around the country, beekeepers have opened up their boxes to find tens of millions of bees simply missing. Other beekeepers open up their hives only to find every bee dead.

It makes me feel a bit like we're living in the beginning of a bad apocalyptic movie: Bees are vanishing all over the United States, and no one knows why. In 24 states around the country, beekeepers have opened up their boxes to find tens of millions of bees simply missing. Other beekeepers open up their hives only to find every bee dead.

Scientists are baffled, investigating every possibility from viruses to fungi to "bee stress." And beekeepers are quick to stress that their own bank accounts are not the main worry. Bees annually pollinate $14 billion worth of crops like almonds, apples, peaches, and blueberries, and growers are scrambling to find "alternative" pollinators like fans and helicopters to make up for the lack of buzzing in the fields.

So, where have all the honeybees gone? Here's a theory:

Carolyn O'Hara is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

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