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Discoblog
« Do Ten Percent of Twitter-ers Send Ninety Percent of Tweets?
Scientists Milking Mice for All the Human Milk Protein They’ve Got »

Bees on a Plane! 10,000 Bees Swarm an Airplane Wing in Massachusetts

beeWhile experts are still stymied over why bees were strangely and inexplicably dying off (or whether they were ever dying off), they appear to be back, and on a rampage. A few weeks ago, a large swarm trapped employees inside a New York City GameStop store for several hours.

Now, things are getting even stranger: The AP reports that about 10,000 honeybees swarmed the wing of an airplane used for flight school at an airport in Danvers, Mass. After first gathering on the side of the plane, the bees migrated en masse to the left wing.

The owner of the flight center called the cops, who then called in a local bee removal expert. He collected the bees by sucking the swarm off the plane with vacuuming tool. The insects then were shipped to hives, where they will spend the rest of their days producing honey.

Experts speculate the swarm congregated on the plane to protect the queen bee, who might’ve settled on the wing. Or maybe they just wanted to give their wings a break.

Related Content:
Discoblog: Don’t Swat Them! Insectoid Pollinators are Worth $217 Billion
Discoblog: To Maintain Clean Nests, Social Insects Hold in Poop for a Very Long Time
Discoblog: Giant Honeybees Dance Together; Predators Get Confused and Leave

Image: flickr / wolfpix

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June 3rd, 2009 12:03 PM Tags: bees, honey, planes
by Allison Bond in The Wide (& Strange) World of Animals | 9 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

  • http://thinkingshift.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/how-curious-13/ How Curious! « ThinkingShift

    [...] No doubt the pilot of a plane at a flight school in Massachusetts wondered if he was appearing in a sequel to Snakes on a Plane, this time starring bees. 10,000 honeybees swarmed the left wing of an airplane at the school (weren’t honeybees said to be inexplicably dying off in the US?). The owner of the flight school called the cops (not sure cops are known for their bee removal abilities). The cops called a bee removal expert who sucked the bees off the wing by using a vacuuming tool and then shipped the bees off to hives (hope they survived the huge vacuum cleaner!).  Experts are saying that the Queen bee most likely was on the left wing and the honeybees swarmed to protect her (that or they all thought they’d hitch a ride). Source: Discover Magazine. [...]

  • http://www.ucsusa.org/ MareBear

    Just a correction: Honeybees are dying off — here’s an early article in Scientiifc American:
    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bees-ccd-virus

    and a more recent one at Stanford’s website:

    http://www.stanford.edu/group/parasites/ParaSites2007/AgriVetParasites/Background.html

    a discussion of colony collapse disorder on wikipedia.org
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee#Colony_Collapse

  • http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/07/01/multibillion-ant-megacolony-set-to-take-over-the-globe/ Multibillion Ant “Megacolony” Set to Take Over the Globe | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

    [...] Content: Discoblog: Bees on a Plane! 10,000 Bees Swarm an Airplane Wing in Massachusetts Discoblog: Townspeople Thwart Cricket Invasion by Blasting Led Zeppelin Discoblog: U.S. Military [...]

  • http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/07/09/band-of-turtles-takes-over-jfk-tarmac-delays-flights/ Band of Turtles Takes Over JFK Tarmac, Delays Flights | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

    [...] the latest massive swarm of animals to appear in odd places: Don’t forget about the bees on the plane and the ant colony that spans the globe. Maybe they’re all becoming zombies [...]

  • http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/08/28/for-honey-bee-awareness-day-music-video-asks-where-my-bees-at/ For Honey Bee Awareness Day, Music Video Asks, “Where My Bees At?” | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

    [...] Honeybee Murder Mystery: “We Found the Bullet Hole,” Not the “Smoking Gun” Discoblog: Bees on a Plane! 10,000 Bees Swarm an Airplane Wing in Massachusetts Discoblog: You Can Dance if You Want to, You Can Learn from Different [...]

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