Truck Carrying Beehives Crashes, Swarm Released On Michigan Highway

Elqui Valley bees / Abejas del Valle de Elqui

Photo: Getty Images

A swarm of bees was unleashed accidentally after a truck carrying beehives crashed.

According to WDIV 4, a truck overturned on a northern Michigan roadway on Wednesday afternoon (August 25).

Police say the truck crashed along a Charlevoix County Road and residents in Boyne City, just northwest of Detroit, were forced to keep their windows and doors closed while the swarm of bees was being dealt with.

"There was a very large swarm," Charlevoix County Sheriff Charles Vondra said Thursday.

Vondra said that nearly 50 million bees were on the truck when it crashed.

Firefighters sprayed water on the boxes to keep the bees cool in the heat while they waited for beekeepers to arrive. Once the beekeepers arrived at the crash scene, they began collecting the boxes full of beehives and loaded them onto another truck, WDIV 4 reported.

Vondra added that it is estimated that thousands of bees were not collected by the beekeepers. Bee boxes were put at the crash scene in hopes that some of the bees would fly back to their hives and be removed from the area.

Luckily, no residents were stung by the bees, but Vondra stated that some of the beekeepers were stung while loading the boxes onto the trucks.


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