Image: Twitter/Halton Regional Police Service
Early on Wednesday morning, a truck transporting five million bees in Burlington, Ontario spilled its buzzing, stinging cargo onto the road. This raises a question: What do you do when five million bees, presumably a bit irritated, are on the loose?Constable Ryan Anderson of the Halton Regional Police Service told Motherboard that the first step was to call in beekeepers, who are apparently ready to go for just this type of scenario. "We've been fortunate, we've had a lot of beekeepers attend the scene to help us with the cleanup," Anderson said. "They're using smoke to try and get the bees under control and get them back into the boxes and onto the roadway."Anderson said police don't know why the bees were being transported but, regardless, falling off of the truck had the effect of "obviously, waking up the bees," which comes with some risk to responders. "We had one beekeeper who was initially on scene and was stung quite a few times," Anderson said. Five million angry bees could also endanger the public, including a nearby daycare. "We contacted them to make sure the kids stay inside," Anderson said. The Halton Regional Police Service also tweeted out a warning asking residents, pedestrians, and drivers passing the scene to close their windows.At the time of writing, the scene is not yet clear. "I don't expect it to go all day, but it's not close to being done. We still have beekeepers arriving on scene," Anderson said.