A lot of people can't stand bees and don't know why anyone would want to save them. They sting. In swarms, they can kill. In some people's minds, whatever arsenal it takes to get rid of them is just fine, including chemical pesticides.

At least one U.S. chemical company, Ortho, is rethinking its potential role in a mass die-off of honeybees that has decimated populations in recent years. Rather than stand in adamant denial and insist that its products have nothing to do with the problem, Ortho is putting its sense of corporate responsibility ahead of profits — a rarity in this world that deserves to be applauded.

Ortho's focus right now is just on bees, not other problems its products might cause. The world has vastly underestimated the important role bees play in our very survival. Without them, much of the food we depend on each day simply wouldn't exist. And if bees continue to die at current rates, the costs of producing food are likely to increase substantially.

Honeybees play a crucial role in distributing pollen between flowering plants, helping them fertilize and propagate. About one-third of the food we eat is the product of pollination carried out by insects, and honeybees are responsible for about 80 percent of pollination. When bees die, plants don't propagate, and key food resources stop regenerating. Various states have reported major declines in bee populations, including a 60 percent dropoff in Maryland.

Ortho, a division of the Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., says it will phase out a key ingredient in eight products that help fight off insects and plant diseases. The ingredient, neonicotinoids, neonics for short, attack insects' nervous systems.

St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. is among the big producers of products that contain neonics. It says it is working with beekeepers to develop solutions but declined to take a position on Ortho's action.

Scientists disagree about whether neonics or a harmful mite infestation is the bigger culprit behind the bee population's decimation.

The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting its own risk assessment of various neonics and has already listed one as a threat to bees. The EPA has proposed prohibitions on pesticides that include neonics but has received stiff chemical industry pushback.

Not so with Ortho.

"While agencies in the U.S. are still evaluating the overall impact of neonics on pollinator populations, it's time for Ortho to move on," Tim Martin, the general manager of the Ortho Brand, told National Public Radio. The phase-out should be completed by 2021.

We welcome a similar self-assessment from other major chemical companies whose herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers could be inflicting serious environmental harm and putting human lives at stake. It doesn't always have to be about protecting profits.

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Photo credit: Gary Millar