Truck Spills 14 Million Bees On Idaho Highway

ISLAND PARK, Idaho -- Cleanup crews in Idaho have finished clearing honey and an estimated 14 million bees that got loose after a delivery truck overturned on a highway.

Fremont County Sheriff deputies say several workers were stung during the first few hours of the cleanup Sunday.

And some observers told The Post-Register about seeing a strange black cloud and roaring noise above the spill area before realizing it was a massive swarm of bees.

Authorities say a truck was hauling the bees from California to North Dakota when the driver veered off the shoulder, tipping more than 400 hive boxes and honey.

Crews worked all day Monday before removing all the honey from the roadway, though deputies say a significant amount of bees were still buzzing.

Comments

[pepper1311]

03:11 PM on 07/17/2011

As a farmer we stated with bees in 1976. It takes awoke to get real comfoable around them. I know who's afraid of bees. Well when you have ten large boxes of five each they do come out to meet you.

[John02050]

08:18 AM on 07/13/2011

Trucking bees around the nation for pollination is one of the big factors stressing them out.

Monocropping, petrochemical pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers, electromagnetic distrubances (cell phones/wifi), mites, and fungi are all converging to stress out bee colonies.

Plant a bee path, keep bees, stop using petrochemicals on your property, and only purchase organic foods. Hopefully the bees can sustain their populations.

Either way, European honeybees are non-native pollinators to North America. Birds, bats, beetles, butterflies, and a host of other native pollinators are in decline as well, and collapse of North America's indiginous pollinators will result in a greater agricultural disaster than collapse of the entire honeybee population.

[HHUA]

11:47 PM on 07/12/2011

Hauling bees around the country cannot be good for the welfare of the bees to begin with. Not to mention everything else (pesticides, cell phones, etc)... And we wonder 'why' we are losing bees?!!!

[ETCH]

07:36 AM on 07/13/2011

Common practice

I know a guy in Northern California that does it. Works only Organic farms [as much as you can keep the bees on those farms]. This guy treats his bees like pets, they are his lively hood.

You mention pesticides which I would think would be a big part of the problem with the bees dying off. That's not the bee wrangler doing that, that's Corporate farming maximizing yields at the expense of poisoning their customers in the process.... and the bees. They adapt to certain extent to the pesticides... ever wonder why they say not to give babies honey ... high pesticide content that their developing bodies can't cope with.

[tumbler snapper]

07:26 PM on 07/13/2011

"...Common practice..." Correct. There is a yearly migration of bees northward to follow the growing season each year, followed by a return to the south. It's been going on for many years.

[MuckyPup]

06:56 PM on 07/12/2011

Herding bees... it's gotta be even worse than herding cats.

[Gary Nippins]

06:39 PM on 07/12/2011

What's all the buzz about?

[emrichards]

05:54 PM on 07/12/2011

Covered in BEES!

[g-moi]

05:45 PM on 07/12/2011

I hope they break away and fly off somewhere to begin their lives anew

[tjconkster]

05:42 PM on 07/12/2011

I bet that scared the bee...jeebus out of the driver in the next lane.....

[snurps]

05:07 PM on 07/12/2011

All of that honey Yum Yum!

[Deep Thinking Man]

05:05 PM on 07/12/2011

what caused the driver to swerve ???...pesticides kill, but so does wrecklessness !!!!!!

[abuckley23]

04:00 PM on 07/12/2011

"seven hundred thousand three hundred and sixty eight...seven hundred thousand three hundred and...damnit! I lost count again!!! One, two, three...."

[ks crist]

03:57 PM on 07/12/2011

That truck driver sure had a bad day.

[mustang35]

03:44 PM on 07/12/2011

For all of us fans of the movie "Almost Famous"...THIS is the F#*%ing buzz!

[carmenalex]

03:26 PM on 07/12/2011

What a sticky situation...

[LalaSmiles]

03:25 PM on 07/12/2011

that's one beezeee hight way, isn't it?!