Soaring through the skies, tearing their enemies apart — The F-22 Raptors are considered to be one of the military’s most powerful weapons. Stealth, speed, and air superiority; these are the few components that make F 22 Raptors truly fearsome. But it looks like it has finally found a worthy opponent. Or maybe this was part of the revenge by the Iranians for mocking them in 2013. Whatever it is, this opponent was so capable and so powerful that it was successful in keeping this war machine on ground for hours!
In June, one of the aircrafts was declared unfit for flight due to a swarm of — wait for it —Honey Bees! This swarm was found affixed to the exhaust nozzle of one of the jets, and they were estimated to be as many as 20,000, according to the Air Force.
Naturally, the people around wanted to get “rid” of it in the most convenient way, but considering the prevalent crisis of decline in honey bee population, Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Baskin decided to do the humane thing and remove them more safely.
Langley-Eustis’ resident entomologist was called to the scene, but he too gave in to the little beasts. Then the base called Andy Westrich, who is a retired Navy member and a local bee keeper. Only after hours of contemplation on the possible solution, Andy was able to remove the bees using vacuum hoses. He thinks that they made home on the raptor because the mother queen got too tired while migrating from one place to another and fell on the raptor exhaust.
Since these bees are very rare nowadays, especially in the United States; Westrich decided to bring them to a brewery, where they could safely live and thrive. Now these bees maintain a massive honey bee colony in the brewery and in turn the honey is used for the production facility.
There have been several similar incidents of bees attacking and disrupting the course of life for humans. In May, a swarm attacked a car in Wales when the car accidentally drove off with their queen. And in July, a swarm in Canada made its home on a silver pickup truck.
Have any other Bee related incidents to narrate? We’ll love to hear them in the comments section below!