20,000 Bees Swarmed This Car For Two Days To Follow Trapped Queen Bee

I got stung by a bee once when I was a kid and since then, I developed a fear of these little creatures. Their stings hurt like hell!

So naturally, I couldn’t imagine what I would do if something like this happened to me. I’d probably run for my life and never use my car again.

Anyway, this story tells us about how a terrifying number of around 20,000 bees swarmed around a woman’s Mitsubishi Outlander for two days. Unknown to car owner, the queen bee got stuck in the car boot and so her loyal bees followed her.

It took five different beekeepers, park rangers and strangers to finally resolve the 48-hour nightmare. After a lot of work, they were able to keep the bees into a cardboard box but then the wind blew it off and the queen went back to the boot again.

Roger Burns of Pembrokeshire Beekeepers said the car owner didn’t realize that the queen bee was trapped in her car. So you can just imagine her shock when thousands of bees started chasing her.

Roger shared:

“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.

“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 also 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.

“Unfortunately I had to go to dinner so another beekeeper took up the watch however eventually the car owner returned and drove off without realizing the queen was still hidden in the back.

“I think the owner must have been a bit scared of the swarm that was hanging around and just wanted to get away without realizing they were attracted the car because of the queen.

“We were left with a swarm of queen-less bees in the box and then heard that the same car was spotted the very next day with a swarm all over the boot, still chasing it.”

Sounds unusual, right? Well, yes, because it really is rare to see something like this happen in the first place.

According to beekeeper Roger Burns, it is natural for bees to follow the queen but it’s surprising how they kept following the car for two straight days.

As Roger himself said:

“I have been beekeeping for 30 years and I have never seen a swarm do that. It is natural for them to follow the queen but it is a strange thing to see and quite surprising to have a car followed for two days. It was quite amusing.”

Wow. Couldn’t believe someone just described this terrifying incident as “amusing.”