Swarm of 20,000 bees chase car for two days to rescue their queen who was trapped inside
Bees are known for their hard work and even more so for their loyalty to their queen. This loyalty was put on full display for the people of Haverfordwest, West Wales in the most unlikely situation. More than 20,000 bees were in full pursuit of a car for two days as they followed their queen bee throughout the city. It took multiple beekeepers to rescue the trapped queen and her worker bees safely out of the way. Considering the important role bees play in the survival of the planet and the human race, the task at hand was an important one.
It all started when a 68-year-old grandmother, Carol Howarth, visited a nature reserve. Unbeknownst to her, she had picked up a tiny hitchhiker in her Mitsubishi Outlander. She drove away after a day well spent and stopped by a supermarket to get some shopping done. When she returned to her car, she was shocked to find it with a fresh layer of bees, swarming in the thousands, reported CNN. That is when local ranger Tom Moses, who works as a Pembrokeshire Coast National Park ranger and was luckily driving by came to her rescue and documented the whole process in a pun-filled Facebook post.
Moses thought the whole incident was a "Bee-rilliant swarmathon!" He explained the situation in detail. "Driving through town noticed this going on outside the Lower Three Crowns and couldn't resist getting involved! (bees need our help and I worried that some idiot would come to pour boiling water over them or something stoopid!) It's a good thing he was there too. He knew to call the Pembrokeshire Beekeepers Association who sent beekeeper #1, Roger. He came to the scene with a box and swept the bees in. Roger then left for a dinner date leaving Moses with (rusty) beekeeper #2, Andrew whom he watched and encouraged from a safe distance.
The bees started co-operating at first and started entering the box easily at first but then they started getting impatient. With their queen trapped in the car, they started stinging the beekeepers. Narrating the series of events Moses wrote: "Then they were coming out again. Where's the Queen? In the box, or hiding in the crack between boot and car panel? Stung again." They had to enlist the help of a third beekeeper, Jeremy. Between trying to help Howarth, the men kicked back and enjoyed a few beers as well. "Drunk bloke from pub went and swept a load of bees off the car with hand looking for the queen, got stung loads pfffft...," Moses said of an intoxicated passerby who tried to be helpful.
"We think the queen had been attracted to something in the car, perhaps something sweet, and had got into a gap on the boot’s wiper blade or perhaps the hinge," Roger, a retired doctor told Metro. "The swarm of around 20,000 had followed her and were sat around on the boot of the car. I brought over a cardboard box and carefully brushed them into there as quickly as possible as I was aware it was a big swarm in the middle of the high street." He added, "I got about 15 or 20 stings for my trouble. I then left the cardboard box on the roof while we waited for the last few hundred bees to leave the boot but then a gust of wind blew it off and the queen fled back to the boot again."
There was not much progress till a fourth beekeeper in a "full suit and Smokey thing," came to their rescue. "All under control, so buggered off home before stung again," Moses wrote about the adventures of the first day. "3 hours well spent, and avoided painting for a bit! Best thing to happen in Haverfordwest for years - should get a load of hives in Castle Square..." The next day, Howarth saw that the bees were back. The beekeepers were brought back again. And by the evening her car was free from bees even though the whereabouts of the queen bee remains unknown.