A federal judge banned the sale of a Bayer CropScience pesticide that environmental groups and commercial beekeepers say is potentially toxic to the nation’s threatened honeybee population.

Both Bayer CropScience, a North Carolina subsidiary of Bayer AG, and the Environmental Protection Agency have 60 days to appeal the decision of Manhattan U.S. District Judge Denise Cote.

The ban would make the sale of spirotetramat, known by the trade names Movento and Ultor, illegal in the United States after Jan. 15.

Cote’s decision does not explicitly address the inconclusive impact the pesticide might have on honeybees. Instead, she faulted the EPA for ignoring steps required in any pesticide approval process, including failing to take public comment and failing to publish Bayer’s application and the agency’s approval in the Federal Register.

“The EPA utterly failed to comply with these procedural requirements and has offered no explanation whatsoever for these shortcomings,” Cote wrote.

Bayer CropScience said it is disappointed with the court’s decision, which it said is based on the EPA’s procedural error. The company is “considering its options” but has not filed an appeal, spokesman Jack Boyne said.

“The ruling has nothing to do with the characteristics of spirotetramat itself, and raises no substantive concerns regarding the product,” Boyne said. “Spirotetramat has been extensively tested in laboratory and field studies and has shown excellent performance, with regard to bee safety.”

The EPA has not filed an appeal, said agency spokeswoman Enesta Jones. “We are reviewing the decision,” she said, without elaboration.

The decision comes three years after scientists identified Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious die-off that each winter has killed at least half the bees kept by the nation’s large commercial beekeepers. Its cause largely has eluded researchers.

“This decision pulls a potentially dangerous insecticide from the market so that it can be evaluated. There are lower-risk alternatives on the market,” said Aaron Colangelo, an attorney for the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, which sued the EPA along with the Xerces Society, a Portland, Ore. wildlife conservation group.