Officials near the US border were abuzz after being relentlessly attacked on Friday morning by a swarm of fugitives: honeybees had escaped after a truck carrying hives overturned near the Canadian border. About 14m honeybees flew free of the truck around 4am a few miles south of Canada.
The truck that was transporting about 70,000lb of hives and honeybees rolled over on a road in north-western Washington state. Local sheriff’s deputies and bee experts removed the box hives to help recover and rescue as many bees as possible. The driver of the truck was not injured.
Hours later, the bees began to swarm and sting the deputies. Some sheriff’s deputies took refuge in their patrol cars to avoid the stinging swarm.
According to a sheriff’s spokesperson, the driver probably did not navigate a sharp turn well enough, causing the trailer to roll.
Officials warned the public to avoid the area, to avoid being stung.
Several beekeeping experts are developing plans to “save as many bees as possible”, the spokesperson told the Seattle Times. The current plan includes closing the road for a couple of days while the bees re-enter their hives, which will then be gathered and secured.
A bee expert told the New York Times that honeybees are social and will probably settle close to the truck.
“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 said in a post, as reported by the Associated Press.
Honeybee colonies are important and crucial to the world’s food supply by pollinating crops. But they are fragile and have been placed under further stress in recent years by a number of factors, including insecticides, parasites and the climate crisis.
• The headline and text of this article was updated on 1 June 2025 to reflect that the Whatcom County sheriff’s office corrected its estimate of the number of bees that flew free of an overturned truck, saying it was closer to 14m, rather than 250m, which was previously reported.
