Millions of honeybees abuzz after truck overturns in Washington state

A hive of honeybees appears on display at the Vermont Beekeeping Supply booth at the annual Vermont Farm Show at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction, Vt., Jan. 28, 2014. (AP / Andy Duback)

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — There was a buzz in the air Friday in northwestern Washington state as about 250 million honeybees escaped a commercial truck that overturned.

The truck hauling an estimated 70,000 pounds (31,751 kilograms) of honeybee hives rolled over around 4 a.m. close to the Canadian border near Lynden, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said in social media posts.

It appears the driver did not navigate a tight turn well enough, causing the trailer to roll into a ditch, county emergency management spokesperson Amy Cloud said in an email. The driver was uninjured, Cloud said.

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.

“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 advised to avoid the area on Friday, and sheriff’s deputies dove into in their squad cars at times to avoid being stung.

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.

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

Beekeepers often transport millions of bees from one location to another because leaving them in one location for too long can deplete resources for other pollinators, The Seattle Times reported.

Alan Woods, president of the Washington State Beekeepers Association, told the newspaper the state should have a standardized “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.

Lisa Baumann, The Associated Press