• Neonicotinoid insecticides bind irreversibly to critical receptors in the central nervous system of insects. The damage is cumulative, and with every exposure more receptors are blocked. The effects of receptor binding are irreversible as well. Neonicotinoid insecticides account for worker bees neglecting to provide food for eggs and larvae, and for a breakdown of the bees' navigational abilities, which is, in the course of time, detrimental to the bee colony, and ultimately causes colony collapse. Bees, the number one insect pollinator on the planet, are dying at an alarming rate in recent years.

Ground and surface water contamination with insecticides that cause irreversible damage to non-target insects is an environmental disaster in the making. Neonicotinoid insecticides are prone to leach from soils. Not only are they water soluble and mobile in soil, they are also quite persistent in soil and water. The widely used neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid has caused major pollution of Dutch surface water, which has already been associated with insect decline and a dramatic decline of common grassland birds.

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