A plane is forced to change gates to allow honey bees to come in for a landing!

Who would of thought that small tiny honey bees could reroute a huge plane loaded with passengers? Yet this is what happened, a swarm of 15,000 honey bees landed on the jetway where passengers normally unload. Airport officials, not wanting to take a chance with the bees potentially stinging passengers as they unloaded, decided to reroute the planes until the bees could be removed. 

Removing bees is always an adventure and challenge that I enjoy. I love travelling to new places and experiencing new things. It was pretty cool to be able to do a bee removal from this location! I think this was the third time I have been to the Atlanta airport to remove bees. However, this was the first time the bees landed so close to incoming planes. This was also the first time the bees were still there by the time I got there. The other two times the swarms of honey bees had already left to find a permanent location and only stragglers were left. 

Here is a picture of the swarm of honey bees

I received the call in the afternoon and was at the airport within the hour. Thankfully I only live about 30 minutes from the airport and traffic was light. But it wasn't a matter of just driving my vehicle up to where the bee problem was at. Oh no. There are procudures that have to be followed at the airport! First, I had to have my vehicle inspected. Second, I had to show identification and be approved at the guard gate. Third, an escort vehicle took me to the bee location. Fourth, I had to have someone with me the whole time watching. And after removing the bees, repeat the whole process backwards. Once we got close, planes were flying everywhere and the noise from all the engines was very loud!   

Here I am getting ready to remove the bees with my bee vac.

I arrived on the scene around 4p.m. I was able to successfully remove the bees in about an hour and left. However, I was called back because there were still some straggler bees hanging around that were of concern. So I came back around 6p.m. and just waited till dusk when the remaining bees settled down, and I could vacuum them all up. I believe atleast two planes had to change gates bacause of the bee issue. 

It is crazy how honey bees can be found in some many places. The Atlanta airport is just one of these places that I have been to to remove bees.