Ian, well the bees are not being driven to extinction: there are
   fewer beekeepers. Statistics depended upon beekeeping as a
   hobby. Beekeeping has become less popular and with fewer people
   counting the bees, there seems to be fewer bees.

   I work in animal trapping and one of the things we deal with is
   bees. There's no bee shortage but there is DEFINITELY a growing
   shortage of beekeepers. We used to be able to "trap live bees"
   because we'd just pass it on to a local beekeeper. But over the
   past 12 years, fewer and fewer people bother with it; beekeepers
   get old and die and their grandkids don't share the passion.

   We have ONE GUY left that we can turn to. But he's old himself
   and eventually we'll have to change our literature and no longer
   be able to help people by removing bees nests live.

   Mix in a story linked to the drug that caused birth defects that
   were extremely scary and real (and I could've been a victim of
   it myself, had I been carried a few months or a year earlier
   than I was)... and mentally link it to _suspected_ pesticide
   pollutants (DDT) that, as far as I know, ended up being
   disproven.. but once the ball got rolling, its hard to stop an
   idea from the public mind.... and toss in a few big name
   chemical companies.... you get a spreadable meme.

   Agent Orange was:
   [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/.../2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic...
   and
   [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic_acid

   Thalidomide is not known to be a carcinogen, although they're
   revisiting the possibility of a particular type of cancer, due
   to growing concerns likely fed by grassroots media efforts. (my
   opinion)
   [3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide#Carcinogenicity

References

   Visible links
   1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic_acid
   2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic_acid
   3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide#Carcinogenicity