Pesticide environmental risk assessments (ERAs) aim to approve only those agrochemicals that pose low environmental risks. Yet as mounting scientific evidence highlights adverse effects of authorized products on bees, it becomes clear that current ERAs fail to adequately protect insect pollinators (1, 4, 5). Part of the issue is a reliance on the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), by pesticide regulatory authorities worldwide, as the model species to assess risks to all bees (6). This specific focus is problematic owing to substantial differences in life history traits, exposure routes, and vulnerabilities among bee species (7). For example, whereas most of the world's 20,000+ bee species are solitary, honey bees live in large colonies that benefit from social detoxification strategies, which buffer pesticide impacts (8). Failures to detect and document pesticide impacts on wild bees arise from multiple other deficiencies, which include incomplete consideration of potential long-