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Nature & Environment

Woman stalked by swarm of bees for 24 hours

By T.K. Randall
May 25, 2016 · Comment icon 11 comments

The bees took a particular liking to Mrs Howarth's car. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Hola Mundo
Carol Howarth was shocked to discover that a swarm of 20,000 bees had followed her car all the way home.
The 65-year-old had been driving home from a visit to a nature reserve in Wales when, having parked her car in Haverfordwest town center to do some shopping, she returned to find that her vehicle had become covered in a heaving mass of the insects.

"It was spectacular. I was driving through when I spotted the big brown splodge," said park ranger Tom Moses who stopped to offer his assistance. "A lot of people were really amazed by it, cars were slowing down and people were taking pictures of it."

Eventually Moses, along with two beekeepers he had called in to help, managed to safely remove the creatures from the back of Mrs Howarth's car so that she could get back in and drive home.
Incredibly however, upon awaking the following morning, she discovered that the swarm of bees had followed her all the way back to her house and had once again settled on the back of her car.


"One theory was that the queen was trapped in my car and the swarm were following," she said. "But they couldn't find the queen anywhere so I've no idea if that was right."

This time beekeepers were able to permanently remove the bees without them coming back.

"I have been beekeeping for 30 years and I have never seen a swarm do that," said Roger Burns of Pembrokeshire Beekeepers. "It was quite amusing."

Source: Telegraph | Comments (11)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #2 Posted by Sundew 8 years ago
Despite the fact they couldn't find the queen, that's really the only reason bees will swarm like that, it's all a chemical attraction to surround and protect the queen during a swarm. Fortunately the bees are not easily provoked while swarming and generally don't bother anyone. Unless they commandeer your car.....
Comment icon #3 Posted by Still Waters 8 years ago
It's odd that the bees came back overnight. If nobody had been able to find the queen which is what they thought the bees were following, something else must have attracted them. Perhaps the car smells of something they like
Comment icon #4 Posted by and then 8 years ago
Now THAT would be an unexplained mystery right there!
Comment icon #5 Posted by Calibeliever 8 years ago
Looks like the first bee keeper they called in screwed up and didn't extract the queen. Rookie mistake.
Comment icon #6 Posted by BeastieRunner 8 years ago
That's got to be freaky.
Comment icon #7 Posted by Rut Roh 8 years ago
Alice Cooper wrote a song that reminds me of this...  Welcome to my nightmare   I could never ever drive that car again.  Forever scarred I would bee...  
Comment icon #8 Posted by Sundew 8 years ago
Probably after the Honey Nut Cheerios. 
Comment icon #9 Posted by Myles 8 years ago
Somewhat related:   I've noticed many stores have been advertising bee keeping supplies.    Is it the new fad? Does anyone here keep bees?   Is it worth it?   A fun hobby? I'm not real fond of honey, although I may have never tasted fresh.   Less related: The last 2 days I have swatted and killed 13 bumble bees that are making their home in my chicken coop.   I know they are carpenter bees although they look just like the typical big bumble bee.   I use a racquetball racquet.  
Comment icon #10 Posted by Sundew 8 years ago
I suspect it's because of Colony Collapse Disease, which is causing the failure of many bee colonies, that the intent is to bolster the bee population. Honeybees, and to a lesser extent other bees in America are responsible for pollination of many, many food crops. Without the bees we will either have to hand pollinate plants like apples, tomatoes, squash, and most other fruits and vegetables (at a huge expense) or be forced to live off of wind pollinated plants in the grass family like wheat, corn, barley and so forth. It will also be the end of many ornamental plants that use bees for reprod... [More]
Comment icon #11 Posted by rashore 8 years ago
I don't keep honeybees yet, though I know there is at least one wild hive in the area. I do however "wild keep" a lot of other native bees in my area. We get a lot of bumbles and orchard mason bees. And we have a large array of other niche bees in the area that I help out. So I don't have to depend on a honeybee population for pollinating crops.  I will be keeping honeybees in the future though. Not for need of pollinators, but rather because we like honey a lot in my household. I plan on a mason jar observation langsthoth style hive.   A lot of commercial agriculture misuses honeybees IMO,... [More]


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