Roberta’s Bees Have Maybe, Possibly Taken Over the Streets of Bushwick
Here’s the thing, we’re very pro-bee in theory (hive disease is real and it’s terrifying!), but in practice? We’re not the kind of people who freak out and swat at the air like maniacs at the mere sight of a bumble bee, but we do calmly walk away and scream on the inside. Which, we get that we’re ridiculous, but, you know, this is part of why we choose to live in an urban environment. We don’t want to deal with the perils of nature! Does that mean that we don’t get to enjoy some of her bounties as well? Yes. Yes, it does. But it also is supposed to mean that we don’t need to deal with things like swarms of bees taking over our streets and crawling into our motherfucking dreams at night, which is apparently what’s happening right now in Bushwick. Ahhh!
Via Gothamist, an anonymous Bushwick resident claims that bees from Roberta’s apiary descend upon the neighborhood’s streets at night, where they “terrorize” residents:
It’s becoming a straight up safety hazard to walk down Moore Street at night. Hundreds of bees can be found buzzing around each building’s outdoor lights, and crawling across the sidewalk. Not sure if they are sick, or confused, but they are not aggressive. They move slowly and almost act as if they’re drunk.
It’s like a bee minefield on my block once the sun goes down. Everyone is scared they might start attacking their dogs, or obviously us humans too. In the morning, piles of dead bees can be seen on the sidewalk. The first night we noticed the bees, two somehow got into our apartment! And they’ve been found in our building’s entryway as well.
That literally sounds like our worst nightmare! Bees at night? We thought bees stayed in their hives at night? What is going on here (if anything)? Well, it’s hard to say! Roberta’s has yet to release a statement about the issue, and one Gothamist commenter claims to live in the area in question and says, “I live across the street and I haven’t seen a single bee…” And we were just walking past Roberta’s the other day and saw no piles of dead bees, not that we were looking that hard, but still. That said, it is apparently a busy bee season due to all the pollen in the air, which, again, this is why we don’t live in the country! Ugh. So, the lesson, we guess, is be careful out there, carry an Epipen if you need one (we don’t technically, but kind of really want one because of our hypochondria), and tweet at this city’s very own beekeeper, Anthony Planakis (@tonysbees) if you’re in trouble. Good luck out there. The urban jungle has apparently become a literal jungle.
Follow Kristin Iversen on twitter @kmiversen