It's not just European bees. Here in the Berkshires, the apple producers are noting severe declines in bee counts and apple harvests.

It sucks even more evolutionarily because getting honey bees to make themselves at home isn't always an easy task, and a hive that chooses whatever readily-available structure is present would have produced offspring that were better suited to living in a world inhabited by humans. And honey bees are very peaceful and docile insects that are unlikely to take interest in humans unless actually disturbed.

That's a damn shame. Another ignorant fool who doesn't care to identify the insect before killing it.