By: NIAH MADIGAN
A man in New Mexico returned to his car filled with 15,000 honey bees on Sunday, March 28 after grocery shopping. The man, who chose to remain anonymous, had not realized anything was wrong until he had already started driving away.
“Then he turned back and looked and said, ‘Holy Cow,’” Jesse Johnson, the firefighter and paramedic who helped him with the bees said in an interview with the New York Times. “He called 911 because he didn’t know what to do.”
Mr. Johnson, whose hobby is beekeeping, was able to safely relocate the bees to his property. “I’ll do anything to keep people from killing the bees,” he said in the same interview.
Firefighters don’t usually remove bees, but because the large swarm was in a high-traffic area and because they were so docile, Mr. Johnson was able to step in and help that day.
Because honey bee populations are depleting quickly in the U.S, it’s important that we don’t kill them if not necessary. According to the U.S. National Agricultural Statistics, a honey bee decline of about 60% in 1947 to 2008 occurred, and this has only gotten worse in the past few years. This incident is a good example of how killing bees is not always the best solution. Thanks to Mr. Johnson, everybody involved was able to go home unharmed, including the bees.
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