Millions of bees escape, start stinging after Whatcom County crash

SEATTLE – Whatcom County sheriff’s deputies had to hide in their patrol cars from about 250 million escaped honeybees, which started swarming and stinging after a commercial semitruck carrying the pollinators’ hives rolled over Friday morning about 3 miles south of the Canadian border.

A bee expert warned people to stay at least 200 yards away from the swarm, which is concentrated near where the truck rolled over on Weidkamp Road, Whatcom County sheriff’s office spokesperson Amy Cloud said Friday by phone.

The general public is not at risk, but the sheriff’s office told anyone allergic to bee stings to check the state’s bees and wasps protection guidance in a statement Friday.

Someone called 911 after the truck, which was hauling about 70,000 pounds of hives and honeybees, rolled over at about 4 a.m. somewhere between West Badger Road and Loomis Trail Road, Cloud said.

Deputies and a bee expert responded and closed that section of Weidkamp Road to protect people from the bees, which were at risk of escaping their hives.

At about 9 a.m., the bees started swarming and stinging deputies, Cloud said. None had sought medical treatment by 11:30 a.m., she said.

It’s unclear what caused the truck to tip over, she said.

Deputies left the area at about 10:30 a.m. Members of the sheriff’s office’s emergency management division responded and are working with several expert beekeepers to develop a plan to “save as many bees as possible,” Cloud said.

Their current plan includes closing Weidkamp Road for up to two days to give the bees a chance to find their queen and re-enter their hives. Beekeepers will then gather up and secure the hives overnight, when its dark and the bees are least active, Cloud said.

“We can’t determine what the bees will do,” Cloud said. “But we can say to stay away from the area to ensure you can’t get stung.”

Alan Woods, president of the Washington State Beekeepers Association, doubted sheriff’s deputies could save the bees.

“Once it gets warm and the bees get active, you’re not going to stop them,” Woods said on Friday by phone. “The only way they’re going to actually contain them at this point is by (having) a firetruck come in and spray them with water.”

It’s not uncommon for beekeepers to transport millions of bees from one location to another, as leaving them in one location for too long can deplete resources for other pollinators. But Woods said the state should have a standardized “emergency bee response” for when vehicles carrying the bees crash, like when 14 million bees escaped a crashed semitruck and started stinging people in 2015 in Lynnwood.

Speed is key to saving bees after such a crash occurs, as they tend to wake up and start stinging once the day gets lighter and warmer, Woods said. Beekeepers should be called as early as possible so they can respond to a crash site and load as many hives as they can into trucks.

“There needs to be a plan set in place so that when this does happen, we know what do,” Woods said. “I hate that it happens. That’s a lot of bees that are just gone.”