50 Million Bees Swarm in Northern Michigan Due To Truck Crash

How do you feel about bees? Are you one of those people that will run away saying you're allergic, even when you aren't? (I've seen people do that.) If that describes you, be happy you weren't near Boyne City on Wednesday.

A truck full of 50 million bees crashed. 50 MIILION bees! That's a lot of bees! Police say a truck hauling bee hives crashed and overturned along a northern Michigan roadway, unleashing a big swarm of bees. Yikes!

The truck was carrying a load of bee boxes along a Charlevoix County road. It overturned and the bees escaped. All at once! Charlevoix police urged residents to keep windows and doors closed.

Charlevoix County Sheriff Charles Vondra said about 50 million bees dumped from the truck. Beekeepers retrieved the hive-filled boxes and loaded them onto trucks that hauled them away, but Vondra says several hundred thousand bees got left behind.

The crashed happened on Jaquay Road near Behling Road in Boyne City. Local firefighters sprayed water on the boxes to keep the insects cool in the heat of the day until beekeepers could arrive and begin retrieving the hive-filled boxes and loading them onto trucks that hauled them away.

Vonda reported that no residents were stung by the bees, but some beekeepers got stung while they were collecting and loading the boxes onto trucks that removed them from the scene.

The Associated Press reported thousands of the bees are unaccounted for, but bee boxes were placed at the crash site in hopes that some would fly back into those boxes for removal.