A parliamentary committee in Britain says the government should suspend the use of a number of pesticides linked to the deaths of bees.
Members of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee called for a moratorium on the use of sprays containing neonicotinoids.
Britain has refused to back an EU ban on these chemicals saying their impact on bees is unclear.
But in their report, the MPs said that two-thirds of bee species in Britain have suffered population declines.
"We believe that the weight of scientific evidence now warrants precautionary action, so we are calling for a moratorium on pesticides linked to bee decline to be introduced by 1 January next year," said committee chair Joan Walley.
France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia have already suspended the use of certain neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid, clothianidin and TMX, which are attractive to bees.
Pesticide producers Syngenta and Bayer last week proposed a plan to try to forestall a ban by the European Union.
Their plan includes the planting of more flowering margins around fields to provide bee habitats as well as monitoring to detect the neonicotinoid pesticides blamed for their decline and more research into the impact of parasites and viruses.
