Beetle may have stirred up Mass. bee swarm

MARBLEHEAD, Mass., June 25 (UPI) -- A New England beekeeper said a trespassing beetle may have stirred up a swarm of 1,000 honeybees that raced into a residential neighborhood.

Several people and pets were stung in the chaos that erupted in Marblehead, Mass., last Sunday.

"There were bees flying everywhere," beekeeper Paul Price told The Boston Globe. "There was real pandemonium."

Price said his bees had been acting more aggressive than usual for the past few weeks and he was in the process of moving his hives out to the country Sunday when a wire mesh screen on the hives came loose and allowed thousands of the insects to pour out.

Price said that when he inspected the hives he found signs that a predatory species of beetle had gotten inside, which he said could explain the bees' unusually agitated state.

"My concern is that people are really getting afraid of bees," he told the Globe. "This was really an anomaly."