Trailer of Bees Tips Over on I-85

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Helpless honey bees, just trying to get back into their hive homes on the side of a hot highway. Interstate 85 to be exact. A Charlotte traffic jam like none other had everyone buzzing Tuesday, when a trailer tipped over, according to transportation top brass. It was carrying 400 hives and about 30,000 bees per hive. That’s 12 million insects.

“They were swarming around, crawling in my ear, my nose, everywhere, it was miserable,” says Gastonia resident Robert Stephens. Even though he was being really careful, he got stung. He says, “There were bees everywhere, I got stung probably 40 or 50 times myself.”

Beekeepers were called in to help. “You have hives and you put the hives back together. They’re scattered everywhere and you hope as many of the bees as possible will go back in their hives,” says David Segrest of the Mecklenburg County Beekeeper Association.

Road crews tried to carefully clean up and keep bees outta their bonnets. No people were hurt in the hive hysteria, but Segrest the beekeeper says we should all be compassionate toward the scattered, disoriented, unhappy, hiveless honey bees. He says, “It’s like if you got lost in a big department store, you might have a hard time finding your mama!”

The bees were being driven from Florida to New York.

Lots of you commented via social media to WCCB News @ Ten anchor Morgan Fogarty. Kristin Myrwold wrote, “Gives new meaning to Buzz City!” David Danielewicz wrote, “I bet the driver was listening to The Bee Gees or Sting!” And Mark Sitzer wrote, “Thanks for the information, honey.”