CCD affecting other insects While all this is certainly entertaining the qoute does not stand on its own in that even if all honeybee populations collapse mankind will not disappear Wild pollinator insects animals and even wind can still pollinate many even most edible food crops Even if those crops that depend solely on domestic bee pollenation can not be produced any longer humans would adapt agriculture to fill those niches At this point it s not clear yet that CCD only affects bees It certainly stands to reason that other insects could be affected by the same disorder Also the quote may be overly simplified But the big picture is that without pollinators things are much more difficult I have not seen any references that have indicated that wild bee populations wild pollinators or other insects have been affected by the same disorder If you know of any references that cite a similar decline in native or wild pollinators it may be helpful to include a section on this Wild bees are generally becoming rare in the Western world due to habitat destruction This is AFAIK most severe in C Europe I agree that wild bees are increasingly rare worldwide but the cause has little if anything to do with colony collapse Little if anything The proper and correct response is it has nothing to do with CCD Even in the event that CCD should prove to be a disease diseases are rather specific in what they affect and a disease that affects honey bees is unlikely to affect any other insects and there are only 7 species of honey bees It s like expecting that a disease that affects deer will spread to other mammals such as humans That is an unreasonable expectation it most definitely does NOT stand to reason that other insects could be affected by the same disorder the reality is exactly the opposite The seven species in the genus Apis have had something on the order of 35 million years of independent evolution 35 million years for their genomes to diverge from those of all other insects compare that to the 70 million years mammals have existed The human genome has had about as much time to diverge from deer as the honey bee genome has had to diverge from other bees But no one expects humans and deer to be affected by the same diseases Why should a honey bee disease affect other bees While it is certainly true that habitat destruction and climate change are major threats to pollinating insects bees foremost among them CCD even in a worst case scenario is not a threat to anything outside of agriculture