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Thousands of bees swarm woman's car in Wales

Thousands of bees swarm woman's car in Wales
Posted at 6:38 PM, May 26, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-26 18:38:15-04

A woman in Wales was shocked on Sunday when she returned from shopping to find her car covered in a swarm of bees.

More than 20,000 bees flocked to Carol Howarth’s Mitsubishi Outlander, almost completely blocking out the rear windshield of the car.

According to the Telegraph, the queen bee of a local hive got trapped in Howarth’s car. Because instinct forces bees to aggressively protect and defend the hive’s queen, thousands of bees swarmed to the car to try and rescue the hitchhiking bee.

Luckily, a local park ranger was driving by Howarth’s car and pulled over to help.

"It was spectacular. I was driving through when I spotted the big brown splodge,” Tom Moses said. "I was a little bit concerned, with it being in the middle of town outside a pub, that someone might do something stupid and get hurt or do something stupid and hurt the bees."

Moses was able to contact a couple members of the Pembrokeshire Beekeepers' Association, who came armed with boxes to help remove the bees. Finally, Howather was able to get in her car and drive home.

But the ordeal wasn’t over. The next morning, the swarm bees had returned to her car. It wasn’t until 6 p.m. on Monday that the beekeepers were finally able to free the queen bee and solve the problem for good.

Nicolas Cage feels your pain, Ms. Howather.

Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.