Drivers Asked To Close Windows As 5 Million Bees Fall Off Truck

Beekeeper Luc Peters says he's been in "sticky" situations before, but this was the first time police called him for a bee-related problem. 

Peters was one of several local beekeepers called in to assist after five million bees fell from a truck on Guelph Line, north of Dundas Street in Burlington.

According to the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS), officers were summoned to the area at about 6:15 a.m. to react to a truck hauling bees. 

"We're not sure how or what happened, but the boxes containing bees or beehives slid off the trailer and spilled all over the road," HRPS media relations officer Ryan Anderson told CBC News.

Even though authorities claimed the site was cleared by early afternoon, drivers and surrounding residences should keep their windows closed.

"It sounds bigger than it is for the most part, because a colony of bees could be 80,000 bees," said Peters, who cares for roughly 400,000 bees at the neighboring Royal Botanical Gardens.

"It depends on how many colonies there are, and to a non-beekeeper, it would be quite intense to behold regardless... It is critical for people to understand that honey bees are rather gentle and only trouble people if they are bothered. This is a unique occasion in which you must preserve your distance."

A vehicle carrying honey bees to a farm skidded on a road in Burlington, Ontario, releasing five million bees into a residential area. Beekeepers responded to the plea for help and rushed to save the swarming bees.

Police claimed beekeepers were sent in "to help get the situation under control," some beekeepers were stung — though no one was taken to the hospital, according to Anderson.

According to Peters, being stung is all in a day's work for a beekeeper. "I'm not really bothered by it," he added, calling the occurrence an "unusual case" because this many bees would ordinarily stay inside their enclosures.

Peters told CBC Hamilton on his way to the scene earlier Wednesday morning that his goal was to identify the queen bee and bring her inside a cage. "The rest of the bees will follow," he predicts.

The "overwhelming response from beekeepers" helped police remove the site, and a driver was charged with two Highway Traffic Act violations, including insecure load.

Peters believes the bees returned from a pollination service, where farmers employ beekeepers to pollinate their crops.

"The bees are having the worst day of all of us," Peters observed of them.

According to Peters, "a few thousand bees" were likely killed due to the leak, although total losses will not be known for some time.

Meanwhile, Anderson predicts that bees will buzz throughout the area in the following days.

"We'll be leaving some crates behind." Some of the bees have escaped, and we're hoping that they'll naturally return to these boxes, and we'll return later to pick them up once the bees have returned," he explained.