Swarm of 20,000 bees gather around woman’s car west of Toronto

A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Burlington on Thursday.

Beekeeper Dave Stotesbury said he came to the rescue after he was called to the shopping mall on Wednesday to help gather the bees. 

“A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees from a local bee hive ended up gathering on the back and bottom of a woman’s car in the parking lot,” he said. “It was an exciting afternoon.”

“As we work with [Burlington Centre] to increase biodiversity and pollinators in the area we were given a call and came and collected the swarm. It was a fairly easy capture.”

Stotesbury, who is a beekeeper with Backed by Bees, said he “brushed” the bees into specialized equipment that smelt like “home.”

“They are happy to call it their own,” he said. “The swarm is a natural occurrence and its how bees reproduce at the colony level.”

He said the bees were brought back to Backed by Bees’ main location in North Burlington for observation.

“They will find a happy home outside once strong enough.”

There have been previous reports of large swarms of bees loose in Burlington. Last year, police recaptured millions of bees that were accidentally set free in Burlington after crates of bees slid onto the roadway on Guelph Line.