Millions of bees lost in accident

Eric Leake

Thursday, Dec. 16, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.

As the sun set Wednesday, an estimated 9.6 million honeybees lay scattered, and clinging to one another for warmth beneath the Spaghetti Bowl.

The bees were headed for almond groves in California, Nevada Highway Patrol said, but ended up beneath the freeway when the driver of the truck carrying them lost control.

"Millions of bees, tomorrow they're going to be dead, all of them. There's nothing they can do right now," said Don Grogan, a local beekeeper with the Sedona Honey Company who was called to the scene to assess the situation.

Bees massed on the warm west side of a concrete column and in the debris of splintered hives and spilled honey beneath the interchange.

"These bees are doing the best they can to try to survive. They're terribly stressed, won't survive through the night," Grogan said.

A beekeeper for 46 years, since he was a boy, Grogran said he felt for the owner of the hives and hated to see the loss.

"I don't like to see any of them die. It's devastating, absolutely breaks my heart," he said. "We don't like to crush or kill a single bee."

The bees were bound for almond grove pollination in the San Joaquin Valley, Nevada Highway Patrol said, when about 2:20 p.m. the driver of the tractor-trailer carrying them lost control and hit a wall while negotiating a curve on the southbound ramp from Interstate 15 to U.S. 95, Nevada Highway Patrol said.

Hives of bees and honey spilled onto the road and over the edge 40 feet to the ground below. The ramp was closed while a frontloader operated in the swarm and dumped the remaining hives to the ground.

Highway Patrol said the bees, valued at about $50,000, were owned by a company in St. George, Utah.

The actual amount of money lost is more than that, Grogan said, with the $75 per colony that the bees would have made in almond pollination.

He said the bees are part of an annual pollination effort that can see as many as, in his estimate, 1 million colonies pass through Las Vegas en route to California fields in the fall and winter.

"I think those of us that live in Las Vegas are very fortunate this doesn't happen more often," he said.

There was little hope for the bees making it through the night. Crews were expected to spray them with a soapy mixture that suffocates and kills them.

Those escaping the spray would not fare much better.

"Worker bees cannot survive without a queen and a hive," state agriculturalist Marv Benson said. "Their lifespan will be measured in days at most."

Benson said that the bees were not much of a threat as they were not the aggressive Africanized variety, though they could still pack a painful sting.

Before the bees were to be destroyed, Paul Zock had to see them.

Zock, who studied beekeeping in college, was visiting Las Vegas and heard about the spill on the news. He grabbed a disposable camera and went to the scene beneath the underpass.

He waled up to a mass of bees faintly buzzing on a concrete support beneath the freeway.

"They're docile right now, not attacking anybody," he said.

When somebody held up a honeycomb slat, he took a finger, swiped a taste, and said there isn't anything much better.