The crash of a tractor-trailer carrying 15 million bees in Clinton Thursday evening likely won’t hamper Maine’s blueberry harvest this year, according to a local bee expert.
The truck full of bees destined for blueberry fields in Washington County crashed on Interstate 95 in Clinton around 7 p.m. on Thursday, according to Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Brandon Hale, a Clinton Fire Department firefighter and EMT who responded to the crash, said some bees escaped after the truck rolled onto its side, and stung a few firefighters in the process, but he had no way to tell how many were released and if any were injured.
The single truck could inhibit a small grower that may only place one order of bees annually, said Peter Cowin, the founder and former president of the Penobscot County Beekeepers Association. But, for a large blueberry producer such as Wyman’s, one damaged truck likely won’t hurt the company’s harvest.
“In terms of state crop pollination, this truck is likely a drop in the bucket,” Cowin said.
While 15 million may seem like an unimaginable number of bees, Cowin said the truck is actually a fraction of the 3 billion out-of-state bees Maine receives each year to pollinate crops.
In fact, the number of out-of-state pollinators Maine brings in to help crops grow is second only to California, Cowin said.
The bee trucks that come to Maine typically carry about 400 colonies, each containing 30,000 to 45,000 bees.
They generally come from southern states, including Florida, Georgia and Texas, that have early springs, giving colonies ample time to grow in size, Cowin said. The bees in the tractor-trailer that crashed in Clinton were from Georgia.
It’s also common for some bees to escape their enclosure while being transported when truck drivers stop for breaks or meals, Cowin said.
Bees are transported in wooden apiaries stacked on an open-air flatbed truck, then covered with a net. While the net keeps most of the bees contained, some are still able to escape when a truck stops.
“That will leave behind tens to hundreds of thousands of bees at various rest stops,” Cowin said.
Local beekeepers, including Cowin, are usually called after a truck has left to control and clean up the orphaned bees.
