Millions of bees buzz off

Updated 16.19 Tue Jul 01 2008

Keywords: turn, over, release, transport, truck, mounties, escape, million, Canada, Bees

Around 12 million honey bees have escaped in Canada after their transport truck overturned.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the truck carrying 330 crates of bees was travelling on a ramp when the load shifted and the truck overturned.

Bee experts from Agriculture Canada were called in to help deal with the accident

A downpour of rain helped to contain the bees in and around the truck, police said.

Bee experts from Agriculture Canada were called in to help deal with the accident.

The original plan was to try to flip the truck back onto its wheels, but officials decided the best way to recover the insects was to move them, one crate at a time, to the second flatbed truck.

Police were forced to close all four lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway near Saint-Leonard in northwest New Brunswick, and re-routed traffic around the area because of the number of sightseers. Some came on motorcycles or in convertibles and were stung by the agitated bees.

The vice-president of the New Brunswick Beekeepers Association, said if the bees aren't captured quickly, they could disperse into the countryside and find a home inside a tree hollow or another protected area, though it was unlikely they'd survive very long.

Police advised anyone with an allergy to bee stings to stay away from the community for the day.