Bee CCD and backyard pesticides
Yep, things are complicated.
I have managed my little orchard in completely organic ways, which takes quite a lot of effort and knowledge of insect life cycles, degree days, weather conditions, etc.
More recently I did use some pesticides, but I personally have used the same (supposedly relatively safe) chemicals used in agriculture. One problem with backyard products is they mix lots of stuff together so that a homeowner only has to spray and not think about what they are doing, but really only certain insecticides or fungicides are needed at certain times. It is better to be aware of the current situation and mix specifically what you need. This reduces the overall input into the environment. But it takes more work.
My best results were obtained with only two sprays, one just before and one after bloom, using malathion (the same insecticide used all over for mosquito spray programs) and captan (fungicide), neither of which are systemic like the neonicotinoids are (I think they are anyway). Then, I put plastic baggies over the apples, one by one! A physical barrier like that works reasonably well. It's a common method in Japan where they sell fruit for much higher prices, so they can justify the added labor for bagging individual fruit.
But even with the supposed relative safety of some of these chemicals, I don't like it. In the rest of our yard and garden, we never use any kind of sprays or lawn treatments etc. But, our neighbors do! The chemlawn truck is there frequently spraying their lawn and trees with who knows what. It drifts around, the kids run around in it, and there you go. You can't avoid it.
Hopefully understanding about bee CCD will continue to improve. When I was a kid growing up in concord grape country in western NY, the grape farmers used parathion and paraquat. I remember big clouds of the stuff encompassing the tractor, and the farmers wore full suits and respirators. They would come off completely drenched. Both of those have been banned; they were highly toxic to non-target organisms "including humans"! So I think we are much better than we were, but still the effects of extremely low levels of things on the complex web of life make one wonder.
Woa! Drastic dude. Better take up a sustainable hobby that can survive the climate creep, like meteorology. How bout an indoor hydrponics farm; you could grow a little wacky tobaccy after the girls leave home - I'd hate to see you narked by your own kids.