Bee-mergency: 250 million honeybees swarmed a Washington highway. Here’s what happened

The area near the Canadian border on Friday witnessed an unusually busy morning, not with traffic, but with about 250 million honeybees who swarmed in northwestern Washington state after a truck carrying their hives overturned.

Deputies, county public works employees and several bee experts responded to the scene.(Representational Image – AFP)

The truck, hauling about an estimated 70,000 pounds of beehives, rolled over around 4 am close to the Canadian border near Lynden, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said in social media posts.

According to AP news agency, the crash occurred when the uninjured driver failed to navigate a sharp turn. While the driver walked away safely, the bees did not stay put.

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Deputies, county public works employees and several bee experts responded to the scene. The box hives later came off the truck, and local beekeepers swarmed to help recover, restore and reset the hives, according to the sheriff’s office.

The plan is to allow the bees to return to their hives and find their queen bee in the next day or two, according to the sheriff’s office. The goal is to save as many of the bees as possible.

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“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,” the sheriff’s office post said.

The public was warned to avoid the area while the bees settled. Authorities hoped that over the next day or two, most would naturally return to their hives.

Why does this matter?

Honeybees are more than just a backyard nuisance—they’re a cornerstone of the global food supply. Honeybees are crucial to the food supply, pollinating over 100 crops including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus and melons.

Bees and other pollinators have been declining for years, and experts blame insecticides, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply.

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In 2018, the UN General Assembly sponsored the first “World Bee Day” on May 20 to bring attention to the bees’ plight.

Alan Woods, president of the Washington State Beekeepers Association, told the newspaper the state should have a standardised “emergency bee response” for bee vehicle crashes.

In 2015, 14 million bees escaped a truck north of Seattle on Interstate 5 and started stinging people, the newspaper reported at the time.

(with AP inputs)