I saw a beekeeper who recovers bees from houses and other places where they are unwelcome inhabitants. He relocates them to his apiary. He said he never sees colony collapse in these bees, only in hived bees. He, too, thinks it is mites, not the neonicitinoids.
If the bees in a feral colony were to collapse, there would be no need to rettieve them from a house, tree, etc.
Maybe the problem is in the big bee companies that transport huge numbers of hives on trucks place to place... packed that close there is bound to be a greater risk of pests from one infested hive getting into the others. Are truckloads of bees quarantined crossing Intl borders or are they allowed to cross? Has the US bee industry been bought out by foreigners and sanitary practices changed? Or is this a one-time outbreak that is being hyped like a extra warm day as proof of global warming?