A massive swarm of 14 million bees has escaped a flipped 18-wheeler in Whatcom County, Washington, with authorities closing down the road and trying to rescue the bees.
While it’s fortunate that the truck flipped in a rural area near the border of Canada, local authorities are still taking the issue very seriously and have opted to mount an immediate rescue operation.
The truck’s trailer was filled to the brim with beehives, 70,000 pounds worth according to the Whatcom Sheriff’s Office. That’s a lot of bees.
What resulted was a full rescue operation where the authorities got bee experts involved to try and wrangle in all of the estimated 14 million escapees.
Police contain swarm of 14 million bees in Washington
“Weidkamp Road is closed from West Badger to Loomis Trail Road due to the roll-over of a commercial vehicle full of bees,” reads a Facebook post from the Sheriff’s office.
“AVOID THE AREA due to the potential of bee escape and swarming. WCSO deputies, Whatcom County Public Works, and a bee expert are on-scene with the truck-load of pollinating bees. We will advise when the situation has cleared and Weidkamp is re-opened.”
At that point, police believed it was 250 million bees before experts came in and brought it down to a much lower estimate of 14 million.
Over two dozen beekeepers were called in to help clean up the spill and rescue literal millions of bees. Beekeeper Derek Condit posted footage of the cleanup to his personal Facebook page, and you can see the video clip below:
Once the swarm was contained, those in charge of the delivery were brought in to make sure they all got to their destination.
And, while you’d think that containing this many bees would be impossible, proper beekeeping can help all those workers find their way back to their hive.
“Hive boxes from the overturned truck were recovered, restored and returned to use. By morning, most bees should have returned to their hives,” the Sheriffs office claimed.
After the lengthy cleanup process, the road has now been re-opened.
