There was a buzz in the air Friday in northeastern Washington state as over 250 million honeybees fled a commercial vehicle that flipped.
The truck transporting an estimated 70,000 pounds of honeybee hives overturned around 4 a.m. near the Canadian border near Lynden, according to Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office social media posts.
According to county emergency management spokesman Amy Cloud, the driver failed to maneuver a tight turn properly, leading the trailer to tumble into a ditch. Cloud stated that the driver was unhurt.
Deputies, county public works staff, and bee experts all went to the site. The box hives were later removed from the truck, and local beekeepers rushed in to help rescue, restore, and reset the hives, according to the sheriff’s office.
The objective is for the bees to return to their hives and find their queen bee within the next day or two, according to the sheriff’s office. The goal is to save as many bees as possible.
“Thank you to the wonderful community of beekeepers: over two dozen showed up to help ensure the rescue of millions of pollinating honey bees would be as successful as possible,” according to the sheriff’s office announcement.
The public was told to avoid the area on Friday, and sheriff’s deputies occasionally dove into their squad cars to escape being stung.
Honeybees pollinate more than 100 crops, including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus, and melons. Bees and other pollinators have been falling for years, with researchers blaming insecticides, parasites, disease, climate change, and a lack of different food sources.
On May 20, 2018, the United Nations General Assembly sponsored the inaugural “World Bee Day” to raise awareness about the situation of bees.
According to The Seattle Times, beekeepers frequently relocate millions of bees from one spot to another since keeping them in one place for too long can deplete supplies for other pollinators.
Alan Woods, president of the Washington State Beekeepers Association, told the newspaper that the state should have a uniform “emergency bee response” to bee car crashes. In 2015, 14 million bees escaped from a truck on Interstate 5 north of Seattle and began stinging people, according to the newspaper.