250 million honeybees escape after lorry carrying 70,000lb of honeybee hives overturns

The vehicle hauling an estimated 70,000lb of honeybee hives rolled over close to the Canadian border near Lynden, Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said in social media posts.

The driver appears to have lost control on a tight turn, causing the trailer to roll into a ditch, county emergency management spokeswoman Amy Cloud said. The driver was uninjured.

Emergency services and several bee experts responded to the scene, and local beekeepers helped to recover, restore and reset the hives, according to the sheriff’s office.

The plan is to allow the bees to return to their hives and find their queen bee in the next day or two, according to the sheriff’s office. The goal is to save as many of the bees as possible.

“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.

The public were advised to avoid the area on Friday, and sheriff’s deputies dived into their patrol cars at times to avoid being stung.

Honeybees are crucial to the food supply, pollinating more than 100 crops including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus and melons.

Bees and other pollinators have been declining for years, and experts blame insecticides, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply.

In 2018, the UN General Assembly sponsored the first World Bee Day on May 20 to bring attention to the bees’ plight.

Beekeepers often transport millions of bees from one location to another because leaving them in one location for too long can deplete resources for other pollinators, the Seattle Times reported.

Alan Woods, president of Washington State Beekeepers Association, told the newspaper the state should have a standardised “emergency bee response” for bee vehicle crashes.

In 2015, 14 million bees escaped from a truck north of Seattle on Interstate 5 and started stinging people, the newspaper reported at the time.