“Bee” on alert.
Roughly 250 million bees escaped into the wild when a commercial semi-truck rolled over in Washington state, prompting officials to warn locals to stay away from the area.
The truck was hauling 70,000 pounds of honey bee hives when it overturned in a rural part of Whatcom County, just north of Seattle near the Canadian border, around 4 a.m. Friday, according to the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office.
The bees broke free around 9 a.m. when the hives “came off” the truck.
Residents were urged to avoid the area and keep their distance by at least 200 yards.
“No one could have predicted 250 MILLION BEES would be loose on a road,” Washington Emergency Management Division wrote on X Friday morning. “So, stay away. Just…. Don’t go anywhere near them.”
The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office shared on Facebook that emergency crews called in over two dozen beekeepers to help contain the situation.
“We’re literally grabbing a bee box and then grabbing the frames that contain the honey, the bees and the brood, putting them back in the box and restacking them on pallets to hopefully have some survival rate to work with here,” local beekeeper Derek Condit told KOMO News as swarms of bees surrounded him.
“When they said 200 million bees, they meant it,” Matt Klein, the Deputy Director of Emergency Management for the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, told KOMO News.
Klein was stung a dozen times and still had stingers “attached to his ears” late Friday night, the Washington Emergency Management Division revealed on X.
“But they’re honeybees, so the sting isn’t as severe as some other bees, so, so far, everybody is fine,” Klein told KOMO News earlier in the day.
Journalists covering the unexpected incident were even targeted and stung by bees on the scene.
KOMO reporter Denise Whitaker revealed that she was stung by one of the many “aggressive” insects, even though she was approximately 300 yards from the truck.
“At this time, on-scene work is done,” the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office wrote on Facebook on Friday night. “Hive boxes from the overturned truck were recovered, restored and returned to use. By morning, most bees should have returned to their hives and those responsible for their delivery will be in charge.”
“These bees are going to swarm in the local areas and start new hives, luckily, so there will be re-pollination in this area, but there will be great losses as well,” Condit told KOMO News.
The sheriff’s office added, “There is no general health risk to the public.”
The truck was transporting the bees to South Datoka after they pollinated a local blueberry field, the Cascadia Daily News reported.
Whatcom County is home to Bee City USA, based in Bellingham, which helps protect and grow bee populations while playing a “crucial” role in the county’s berry industry.
However, the county was also the first place a murder hornet nest was discovered in the United States in 2020.
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