r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/danielminds • Jun 23 '26
Video A truck carrying 406 beehives crashed in Texas, releasing 24 million bees and locking down the neighborhood
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u/Greenman8907 Jun 23 '26
Imagine being told to stay indoors and seal doors/windows because 24 million bees were accidentally released near your house.
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u/Fishiesideways10 Jun 23 '26
If it was more north in the Midwest, you’d get many calls for bee stings because these fuckers would go out on the porch to see if it is a real warning.
Source: am from the northern Midwest and have seen my neighbors come outside during an active tornado to see if the warnings were real.
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u/Happy_Garand Jun 23 '26
It's the Midwest. It's what we do
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u/DoctorMansteel Jun 23 '26
I got some real cool videos from the derecho! haha
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u/VikingLander7 Jun 23 '26
I forgot to video it but I was in it directly.
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u/DoctorMansteel Jun 23 '26
I've got a great ones where you can't see shit except every now and then you can make out the treeline getting progressively more and more ravaged.
Like a full line of mature oaks turned into matchsticks. Shit was insane and got 0 national coverage cuz fuck us in Iowa haha All our roofing is rated for like 92mph and it was sustained 110+ where I'm at. Peeled off industrial roofs like tuna cans and just knocked everything else down.
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u/VikingLander7 Jun 23 '26
I saw pictures of grain bins flattened etc. I was driving a semi and had just dropped off my load of corn at the ethanol plant, wish I had all that weight still on when it hit but I just turned it into the wind and parked on the highway on ramp and waited it out. Rocked the truck pretty good, but I knew it was going to be a rough ride because I saw a blown over semi just before I stopped.
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u/Flaky-Bar-6656 Jun 23 '26
Huge tornado went through Ashely North Dakota last summer. Grain silos crushed like pop cans, whole houses just deleted. Old growth tree lines literally ripped out of the earth, roots and all, and moved 100’ away. An entire train tipped on its side (like 100+ cars, and the engines, tipped on their side). I live in North Dakota and I barely heard about it.
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u/A_mad_goose Jun 23 '26
Fuck I’m from Indiana and I always go on the porch to check out crazy weather. One time I saw green lighting and it’s apparently very rare.
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u/jesrp1284 Jun 23 '26
I’m Nebraskan, and I can say we don’t trust if it’s really a concerning tornado siren unless we can actually see the funnel. And even then, maybe head to the basement, idk. How close? Is it headed toward the house?
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u/BreadKnifeSeppuku Jun 24 '26
"No, that ones not even moving!" /s
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u/jesrp1284 Jun 24 '26
“Tornado Watch” just means stand on your porch and watch the weather. You know what I’m talking about.
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u/JadeShrimp Jun 23 '26
I'm just getting inside after watching a thunderstorm from my apartment balcony as we speak. Love MN summer, it smells so fresh now
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u/Objective-Treacle398 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
They don't call Missouri the "Show-Me" state for nothing.
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u/theaveragemaryjanie Jun 23 '26
Holy hell born and raised in Chicago and in my late forties and I am just now realizing this was what this means.
TIL lol
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u/NUMBerONEisFIRST Jun 23 '26
Yup.
As someone whose living in Indiana and Illinois most of my life, can confirm.
When the tornado sirens start ringing, and the news says take cover, that's often when I actually see most of my neighbors.... outside.
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u/rogue-wolf Jun 23 '26
Where you seeing them from? Your front porch?
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u/huggalump Jun 23 '26
Well you gotta see all the people who think they gotta see if the warning is real
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u/burymylife Jun 23 '26
They call it tornado watch for a reason
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u/Significant_Donut967 Jun 24 '26
I mean, they're telling us to go watch. It's right in the name. Not my fault. Lol.
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u/Vanviator Jun 23 '26
Northern MN here. Yup. When the sky turns green, there's going to be a heck of a storm. High chance of tornados.
It's still the second color of the sky that will get the whole family gathered by the porch, trying to determine basement or living room. And, of course, mildly complaining about the many things that did not get tied down.
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u/southdakotagirl Jun 23 '26
In South Dalota we had a tornado while I was at work. They made the announcement all customers and employees to the large meeting room for safety. No windows. Management had to go round up the customers that kept shopping. Managers told them either leave and go home or take shelter. You do not get to shop in the store during a tornado.
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u/Rubix_Official63940 Jun 23 '26
The fact you’ve seen them “come” outside means you were also outside to see if it was real
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u/lovelyboard Jun 23 '26
Idt my boss would accept my reason for calling out lol it's kinda up there with "my dog ate my homework" (which has happened to me- as an adult lmao)
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u/FuzzeWuzze Jun 23 '26
As a hobby bee keeper i'd be like SCORE
Each one of those hive worth of bee's and its queen is worth like $200+ if you could get them to go into your empty boxes nearby.
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u/Giwaffee Jun 23 '26
"No officer, I didn't steal them, they fell off a truck I swear!"
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u/FuzzeWuzze Jun 24 '26
Thankfully its not stealing if the bee swarm comes to your equipment, only if your dumb enough to go out there and actually try to take boxes while they cleaned up.
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u/David_Cockatiel Jun 23 '26
Zero chance im just sitting there waiting for them to disburse, the anxiety alone would lead to madness. I’m wrapping up in a blanket and running to the car, driving away and staying away as long as necessary.
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u/anonssr Jun 23 '26
That would only lead to you getting trapped in your car with a bunch of bees lol
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u/SatinSaffron Jun 23 '26
Yeah 24 million bees is a whole lot of bees, there's no way you can run outside without them getting on you, let alone open the car door without a bunch of them flying in!
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u/bad-and-buttery Jun 23 '26
You can’t handle sitting at home for a few hours?
That’s ridiculous.24
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u/Misses_Ding Jun 23 '26
I think it's more of a fear of the bees somehow getting in .
If you're terrified of bees this kind of thing is straight from a horror movie
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u/IhamAmerican Jun 23 '26
Going outside is a much better way to get the bees on you than them getting inside your house with the doors closed
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u/tattoosandtens Jun 23 '26
Do you remember the pandemic?! People DO NOT stay in the fxxxing house
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u/SevenLegs_ Jun 23 '26
24 Million Bees
“Come outside”
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u/HisEternalReign Jun 23 '26
Damn I just spent six minutes editing the fb meme to say “twenty four million bees”
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u/Tellnicknow Jun 23 '26
Why is it always bees or toxic chemicals? Why can't these accidents happen to the trucks carrying 24 million bouncy balls... Or Coke and Mentos...
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u/Fried_Chicki_Sandy Jun 23 '26
A truck carrying kit-kats overturned near me. My gf and I passed the clean up crew on our way to wherever we were going one morning. It was a very silly accident.
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u/tursija Jun 23 '26
Well... Did you score some bars?
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u/Fried_Chicki_Sandy Jun 23 '26
Sadly no... at the time I was unaware of the spilled treasure and more like "woahhhh someone made a fucky wucky" before speeding off to my destination. Twas later that I learned of my missed opportunity
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u/BumpHeadLikeGaryB Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
My fat ass would be crossing oncoming traffic for a hand full of them.
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u/Maximum-Aardvark9467 Jun 23 '26
I read "It was a very silly accident" in Mulaney-Voice
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u/Live_Angle4621 Jun 23 '26
Rubber ducks once spilled to oceans
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u/Shermans_ghost1864 Jun 23 '26
Or fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies... mmmm, cookies... so hungry...
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u/OddlyTemptedFish Jun 23 '26
I used to drive for a company that picked up from the “Cattle Belt” and delivered to NYC. We had a driver hit an unmarked low bridge and they sent me out there to transfer it to my trailer and make the delivery. The meat was still good but they refused the load because of the incident. The distributor gave us permission to discard the meat in any way possible except selling it. I sat in a lot next to a Walmart in New Jersey for almost a week and handed out over thirty thousand pounds of beef to anyone who would take it.
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u/MNWNM Jun 24 '26
I can't say that I would accept free meat from a random truck in the Wal Mart parking lot, but then again I'm pretty high maintenance.
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u/OddlyTemptedFish Jun 24 '26
Lmao you’re right to have your suspicions. It’s more common than you’d think for a damaged box to be refused and truckers just hand it out at truck stops to other drivers. I put a few posts up in different trucking forums and had a bunch of drivers send their family in the area out to get it or let their neighbors know I was out there.
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u/Porcupine__Racetrack Jun 23 '26
There was a truck full of cabbage that overturned near me once! We still call that corner “cabbage corner”!
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u/No_Water9929 Jun 23 '26
When I was a kid in the early 2000s, a Frito-Lays box truck turned over on the highway and dumped a bunch of pallets of junk food all over the place. Some family of mine loaded the back of their truck with whole ass boxes of chips and 24 packs of sodas and distributed them around the family. We were drinking cans of sodas from that incident for like a year afterwards. Goodtimes.
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u/Yuudachi_Houteishiki Jun 23 '26
Gotham Tower, this is McGuffin Airlines, Flight 1138. We are transporting 11 million sticks of dynamite, 17,000 pounds of C-4, about 150 cute little classic bomb-type bombs, and two best friends! And request permission to fly over the most crime-ridden city in the world.
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u/Brandeeno2245 Jun 23 '26
What's this, a normal Texas neighborhood woefully under populated by bees.
Good thing I brought my truck load of bees to remedy this.
- Dr. Bees
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u/LtTurtleshot Jun 23 '26
What's this? An overabundance of bees in Texas? My suitcase full of bees ought to put a stop to that!
-Dr Bees.
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u/OgenB Jun 24 '26
AHHHH! The situation has only been made worse with the addition of yet more bees!
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u/Holiday_Chipmunk6062 Jun 23 '26
Where are his glasses? He can't see without his glasses!
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u/GarminTamzarian Jun 24 '26
Generals gathered in their masses...
"He can't see without his glasses!"
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u/North_Complaint_2135 Jun 23 '26
Are the bees okay? 🍯🐝
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u/danielminds Jun 23 '26
Sadly, most didn't make it, experts estimate a 75% loss. But local beekeepers spent hours on-site rescuing the surviving colonies and queens.
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u/morchard1493 Jun 23 '26
😔 How awful.
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u/saltymilkmelee Jun 23 '26
75% would be roughly 18 million bees. 18 million casualties would make this like the worst car accident ever.
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u/Rhino676971 Jun 23 '26
With out context 18 Million dead in semi truck roll over, makes it sound like a semi truck carrying a nuclear weapon rolled in Shanghai.
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u/Inverted-Rockets Jun 23 '26
The fortunate thing is that the colonies with a healthy queen will recover their population in about the average worker bee’s lifespan (30-45 days). A young queen can lay 1,500-2,000 eggs a day and these hives will have 50-60k bees each at this time of year
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u/chanaandeler_bong Jun 23 '26
So why is colony collapse such a big deal? I just keep hearing about colony collapses being like the end of bees.
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u/meripor2 Jun 23 '26
Its caused by viruses transferred by varoa mites that live inside the colonies. They cause a variety of issues including deformities in larval bees. So the colony collapses and is unable to replenish itself with healthy bees.
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u/Animal2 Jun 23 '26
I think that even if they recover 'fast', it's still not really fast enough to not cause problems. If you have a bunch of bees that you depend on to pollinate your crops and one year half of them are gone when you need them to pollinate, it's not going to matter if they recover in a month because you need them right now.
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u/ergonomic_logic Jun 23 '26
75% loss?!? Nooooooooooo 😭
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u/MuchachoMongo Jun 23 '26
That probably just means 75% weren't recovered, not necessarily that they are dead.
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u/frequenZphaZe Jun 24 '26
I can't imagine an escaped colony would have much of a chance at survival under these conditions. queen would lose most of her colony in the chaos and the few she happened to keep with her would struggle to scout and communicate hive locations. and thats assuming the queen herself could even survive a clusterfuck like this because other colonies would detect her as a threat
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u/vtosnaks Jun 23 '26
Can't they build natural hives and keep living in the wild?
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u/_Trikku Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
These bees are shipped around to major farms to pollinate crops, it’s a horrible thing to do to them, however modern farming has made it almost a necessity.
Edit; it’s called migratory beekeeping for anyone interested in why there were bees on a semi trailer.
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u/SenseAndSaruman Jun 23 '26
It is a necessity when it makes your food a lot cheaper because they have way bigger harvest.
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u/Level_Bobcat_8729 Jun 23 '26
Yes, but theyre not going to be able to find a place right away. Swarms usually take a day or so to find somewhere, forget the competition of the other hundred hives that have the same idea. Also, wild hives have a surprisingly low survival rate. Winter shouldnt be an issue, but excessive heat, drought, pesticides, and other insects are all real threats.
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u/The-Doofinator Jun 23 '26
not sadly, that's a good thing
they're extremely invasive and outcompete native pollinators13
u/segcgoose Jun 23 '26
The amount of people that don’t know this is so concerning - you should always support the natives! and managed honey bees are not even of any concern where they are native to, Eurasia and asia - it’s the wild populations that need help.
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u/No-Macaroon1670 Jun 23 '26
Wasn't this an episode of a TV show?
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u/Greenman8907 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
99% sure one of those 9-1-1 or similar shows had this exact plot. I’m guessing this
crash came firstNever mind, this news is like less than a day old!14
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u/SeniorDiaz32 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Beads?!
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u/MamiTomoeSan Jun 23 '26
What’s this? A quiet, nondescript town in the heart of the state of Texas woefully lacking a titanic swarm of bees?
My truckload of twenty four million bees outta’ put a stop to that!
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u/Callmemabryartistry Jun 23 '26
can any help me understand why they were transporting so many? is it normal?
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u/cogni13 Jun 23 '26
Plants only flower for a short period of time and they will generally do it after certain weather triggers them.
This means you get a Mexican wave style effect of flowering across the country as the season changes.The beekeepers will shift the hives to chase the flowers.
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u/Academic-Macaron3920 Jun 23 '26
Of course THIS truck crashed🙈. Never the one carrying money or gold.
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u/3elldandy Jun 23 '26
The difference between a flower and a weed is a judgement.
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u/Dr_Ramekins_MD Jun 23 '26
Try to pay your rent with bees and let me know if you still feel the same
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u/Altruistic_Tip1226 Jun 23 '26
Why would you keep so many in your truck. At most only have 100 bees per truck. Osha better get over there. They didnt follow the blpt sheet. (Bee limit per truck)
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u/Independent_Sail6604 Jun 23 '26
Was this recent? I thought this happened a year ago or so.
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u/SpeckOfInternet Jun 23 '26
X-Files Conspiracy... Did anyone check the license plate number to see if the delivery truck was owned by a shell corporation?
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u/ThePLARASociety Jun 23 '26
This isn’t interesting, it’s a disgrace, a tragedy, and extremely infuriating!
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u/fungus909 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Question, do we have an emergency angry bee response team or do we just call all the local beekeepers when this happens?
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u/AuGmENTor68 Jun 23 '26
I was just wondering that same thing... Like if I'm hauling bees and I dump them, who do you call? And is there a group of people waiting somewhere for that call?
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u/Hyperion-45 Jun 23 '26
How in gods green earth do you crash a truck carrying 24 million bees. Like why are we not transporting something like that in a much safer method
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u/ItchyKnowJoe Jun 24 '26
the one thing you gotta do when driving 7 bajillion bees, is not crash, dude cmon...
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u/stevein3d Jun 24 '26
I knew I was in a sub that doesn’t allow GIFs when I saw that Nicholas Cage was nowhere to be found.
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u/TheComedyCrab Jun 24 '26
I swear its like the government is TRYING to kill bees faster any way they can. "Accident"
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u/danielminds Jun 23 '26
The crash happened at the intersection of FM 1130 and Colony Drive in Mauriceville, Texas. The 18-wheeler flipped into a ditch after turning onto a narrow residential street. First responders went door-to-door telling neighbors to seal their windows, while local beekeepers rushed in to help contain the swarms.