Maine officials say that a tractor-trailer carrying around 15 million honey bees crashed and was overturned on Interstate 95 Thursday night, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
The vehicle was hauling this great number of bees to use them to pollinate blueberry fields in Washington County, The AP reported.
Most of 15 million bees contained after bee-laden truck crashes https://t.co/4dF2WFIcDL
— Ilan Hulkower (@IHulkower) May 10, 2024
The driver of the vehicle was taken to a hospital and first responders tried to check on the status of the bees, the outlet reported. Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the Maine State Police, said that the “goal was to save them [the bees]” and they managed to mostly contain them, the outlet reported. Bees are typically shipped into Washington County during the spring, The AP noted. (RELATED: Driver Stung Over 100 Times After Cloud Of 5,000,000 Angry Bees Falls Off Truck)
Brandon Hale, a first responder, said that three firefighters were stung by the bees during the rescue operation but that none of them had an allergic reaction, Central Maine reported. Firefighters had set up a hose line to spray bees with water in the event the bees became agitated, the outlet reported, but the line was not needed. “They [the bees] were pretty docile toward the end of the night,” Hale told the press, Central Maine reported.
The right lane of the interstate was shut down all of Thursday night, News Center Maine reported. No other vehicle was involved in the crash, Maine’s Clinton Fire Department said, according to Central Maine.
The State of Maine is home to more than 270 species of bees out of nearly 4,000 species in the entire United States, according to a factsheet published by the state’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. Maine has nearly 2,000 registered beekeepers who own close to 10,000 hives, according to the Maine State Beekeepers Association, Central Maine reported.