Drivers along the Burlington, Ontario, Guelph Line in Canada are being warned to be very careful about keeping their windows rolled up after an estimated 5 million bees escaped their crates when the containers fell off a truck Wednesday morning.
"We're not sure how or what exactly took place," Ryan Anderson, media relations officer with Halton Regional Police Service told CBC News. "But at some point, the boxes containing bees or beehives slid off the trailer and spilled all over the road."
Officers were called to the scene on Guelph Line north of Dundas Street in Burlington around 6:15 a.m. local time to assist the truck that was hauling the insects.
According to the report, law enforcement called in several local beekeepers to round up the fugitive flyers, despite an unknown number that remained at large, causing officers to then advise residents to keep their windows up driving through the area.
"It sounds bigger than it is for the most part, because a colony of bees could be 80,000 bees," local Beekeeper Luc Peters, who takes care of the nearly 400,000 bees at nearby Royal Botanical Gardens, told CBC.
"It kind of depends on how many colonies there are and no doubt to a nonbeekeeper that would be rather intense to see regardless. It's important for people to understand that honeybees are fairly gentle and really don't bother people unless they are bothered. This is a rare situation where you have to keep your distance from them."
Police told the news outlet that the beekeepers were brought in to "help get the situation under control" and that some of them were stung during their bee-corralling efforts.
"I'm not fazed by it really," Peters said.
Peters said the bees would normally stay in the boxes as long as the queen was still captured, making the event an "unusual case."
Several thousand bees are believed to have been killed during the spill from the truck, but crates were left close to the scene to retrieve any returning hive members.
"We're going to be leaving some crates behind. Some of the bees have escaped and we're hoping that they'll naturally return to these crates, and we'll come back at a later date to pick them up once the bees have returned," Peters said in the report. "So if any residents are in the area, they may notice some crates that are still there.
"We ask that pedestrians continue to avoid the area. It's safe to drive as long as you have your windows rolled up but don't approach or touch these crates as we're hoping the bees will return and hopefully, they'll get home."
Police thanked the beekeepers for helping out in the situation and said that the driver of the truck is being charged with two offenses under the Highway Traffic Act including failure to secure the load.