Massive Bee Swarm Descends on a PA Toll Booth

Bees swarmed a tollbooth on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on Wednesday morning in numbers so alarming that booth workers actually had to call for help.

Local media reported that an estimated 40,000 bees descended on the toll booth in lane number 9 on Wednesday, after a few drivers felt obligated to warn that the bees were coming.

"People were driving up to the toll booths and giving them a heads up," bee keeper Don Shump told ABC news. "They actually saw the swarm come down the highway with the cars... to land up here on the toll booth."

Shump works with the Philadelphia Bee Company (PBC), and it was his job to carefully remove the huge swarm, including its queen, one box of bees at a time. As honey bee populations have been threatened in recent years, groups like the PBC try to remove colonies without using chemicals or anything else that could harm them.

After Lane 9 was closed, Shump physically scooped the bees - and most importantly, their queen - by hand into a hive box which was then removed from the turnpike.

According to Shump, honey bee swarms like this are traditionally nothing to worry about.

"They look really scary but... when they are swarming they're really gentle. They're not a sting threat."

By the start of the evening, Lane 9 was reopened, without a bee in sight.

Jim Bobb, another bee removal expert, told The Inquirer that this is actually not uncommon. Honey bees swarm once a year to find a new home, and it's during this time that they are actually the most calm, without a home to defend.

Picking a tool booth overhang to settle on, Bobb said, just happened to be the unusual choice for this group of bees.

Local media reports that no one was stung during Wednesday's bizarre encounter.