Without honey bees the world would be a very different place. There would be no sweet, delicious honey, no beeswax for creams and candles, and—worst of all—barely a fruit, nut, or vegetable to eat. So just imagine beekeeper Dave Hackenburg’s horror when, in 2006, he discovered twenty million of his buzzing charges had vanished without a trace. Those missing bees became the first reported casualties of a mysterious scourge that continues to plague honey bee populations today.