Pesticides are used primarily in agriculture to control pests. However, they can also harm many beneficial animal, plant and fungal species that are not the target of the control. An international meta analysis, including contributions from the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), reveals the significant and previously undocumented impact of various pesticides on different groups of organisms. The synthesis of 1,705 papers has now been published in the journal Nature Communications.