Last week saw two big events related to bees: the announcement by the European Union (EU) of a restriction on use of neonicotinoids insecticides and a joint report on the health of honey bees by the USDA and EPA. These events share a similar theme of preventing a widespread decline in pollinator abundance. In this article, we discuss what these events may mean for the on-going efforts to conserve pollinators and the future of insecticide registration in the United States.