A swarm of 12 million honey bees was released on Canada’s largest motorway yesterday when a lorry carrying the insects overturned.

Rain prevented most of the creatures from flying far and experts arrived last night to find many of the bees on the bonnet, windscreen and chassis of the crashed lorry.

Not all of the bees have been apprehended, however, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned people in St Leonard in northwest New Brunswick to keep doors and windows closed.

“If there’s anyone in St Leonard who is allergic to bees, we’re recommending they leave town for a couple of hours,” said Derek Strong, a police spokesman.

Paramedics and ambulances were placed on standby in case people endured multiple bee stings or suffered an allergic reaction. But the only reported sting victims were journalists and curious by-passers who ventured too close the crash site.

The spilled hives were loaded onto a second truck, along with many of the bees, to restart their journey home to Ontario last night. The road was re-opened at around 1.30am local time.

The swarm would have made a more successful bid for freedom in different weather conditions. “Mother nature has been very co-operative with us. Bees don’t like the rain. . . thousands of bees are hanging on the back of this truck and on the pavement right behind,” said Mr Strong.

Bee experts were rushed to the site of the crash to try and contain the insects, which escaped from the 330 crates stored on the back of the truck.

Richard Duplain, vice-president of the New Brunswick Beekeepers Association, said it was difficult to predict whether the bees would be docile or agitated given their ordeal.

“It’s certainly not a situation where you want to tempt problems,” he said. “You certainly don’t want to go walking through a field of disoriented, agitated and wet honey bees.”

Mr Duplain said if the bees were not captured quickly, they could disperse into the countryside and find a home inside a tree hollow or another protected area, though it is unlikely that they would survive very long.

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