Truck carrying millions of bees overturns, forces Delaware to activate 'bee swarm removal procedure'

A truck carrying an estimated 16 to 20 million bees overturned on a ramp near Newark, in Delaware, on Tuesday night, sending the live cargo swarming into the air.

"We got ahold of one of those bee providers, and he came right out," Sgt. Paul Shavack told DelawareOnline.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Police cited the driver with transporting an unsafe load; the driver, along with his two passengers in the tractor-trailer, were taken to a nearby hospital with an estimated 50-100 bee stings each. Officials closed the ramp for nearly 12 hours after the accident, during which time they doused the bees with streams of water.

While troopers said they now have the situation under control, they did warn motorists of "transient bee swarms in the area," which sounds like code for "take the longer way home from work today."

Explore More

Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.