While 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.
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Image: flickr / wolfpix
June 16th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
[...] 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. [...]
June 30th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
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
July 1st, 2009 at 1:01 pm
[...] 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 [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 11:16 am
[...] 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 [...]
August 28th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
[...] 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 [...]