Five million angry bees fall off truck in Ontario after truck transporting them swerved and dropped wooden hives which exploded into swarm over two lanes of traffic
Five million angry bees fall from a truck in Ontario after the truck carrying them swerved and dropped wooden beehives that exploded in a two-lane swarm
- Beekeeper Tristan Jameson was traveling in Ontario, Canada when he swerved in his truck and dropped the hives containing five million bees
- After the incident, police warned drivers to keep their windows closed on Wednesday morning
- About six local beekeepers arrived on the scene to help collect the bees after police shared a message on social media
Five million angry bees fell off a truck in Canada on Wednesday morning after the driver swerved, causing the swarm to spread across the two lanes.
The crates had detached from the truck and landed on the Guelph Line in the city of Burlington, Ontario, just west of Toronto. It is still unclear where they came from and where they went.
Due to the large number of bees, local police officers had to issue a warning to motorists to keep their car windows closed.
About six local beekeepers arrived on the scene after the police report was shared on social media.
Officer Ryan Anderson said, “Boxes were literally on the road and swarms of bees were flying around. The first beekeeper who was on site apparently got stung a few times.’
Beekeepers bring back bees after they fell out of a truck of beehives that swerved
Bee truck driver Tristan Jameson, left, walks with bee owner Alexander Haley, center, and a beekeeper
Beekeeper Mike Osborne uses his hand to search for the queen bee while removing bees from a car
At around 9:15 a.m., police said most of the five million bees had been collected safely and the crates were being taken away. Some crates were left behind for the uncollected bees to return to on their own.
Beekeeper Luc Peters came to the scene and told the story CBC: ‘It largely sounds bigger than it is, because a bee colony can consist of 80,000 bees.
‘It’s important that people understand that honeybees are fairly gentle and don’t really bother people until they’re bothered.
“This is a rare situation where you have to keep your distance from them.”
Peters said getting stung is a daily activity for a beekeeper.
“I’m not really impressed,” he said, though he called the incident an “unusual case” because normally so many bees would stay in their boxes.
Tristan Jameson, the beekeeper who had transported the bees, told us Global news he swerved his vehicle before the hives fell from behind.
Jameson said, “I was driving down the road, something came over, or a bag, and I swerved. He almost swerved into the ditch, tried to correct and threw away all the beehives.’
While most of the bees have been removed from the area, police said some crates were left behind for the bees they were unable to catch.
Aerial footage of the scene showed people in white bee suits placing dozens of crates back on the trailer.
Beekeeper Tyler Trute is seen here trying to remove bees from a car in Ontario
Bees buzz after a truck carrying beehives swerved on Guelph Line road, causing the hives to fall and release bees in Burlington, Ontario
Another video taken at the scene shows a group of beekeepers trying to drive the insects back into the hives.
You will see a large number swarming around them and clinging to their bee suits as they do so.
Jameson continued, “There are a lot of bees everywhere right now. We wait for them to calm down, relax and come back to the hive and hopefully get as many bees out of here as safely as possible.”
In a tweet just after 9 a.m., police said the area should reopen soon “thanks to the overwhelming response from beekeepers who came to help.”
According to the Canadian Honey Council, a national association of beekeepers, a honey bee colony has about 50,000 to 80,000 bees during the summer.