The vote to ban all outdoor use of the three main neonicotinoid insecticides in the European Union is a step in the right direction. It is a very welcome one, too, given the ongoing evidence of catastrophic insect loss, in particular the recent evidence from Germany of a 76 per cent decline in flying insect biomass from 1989 to 2016.

There is abundant evidence from lab and field studies that neonicotinoids are harmful to bees, and a growing body of evidence linking them to declines of butterflies …