I'm glad this thread was started. There were a couple studies released very recently that shows that neonicotinoids indeed affect honey bees. I called a big box store last year and asked them if they knew of any intention to phase this out. The garden manager didn't know anything. Disappointing. Maybe I'll send them a letter with a copy of the articles. If anyone cares to read about them, the Economist has a good article that summarizes the issues:
https://www.economist.com/news...
"The researchers also measured the neonicotinoids in the nests of wild bees, where they found traces of a third common neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, too. Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) with nests containing high total concentrations of these three pesticides produced fewer queens; red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) exposed to them made fewer eggs."
