People flee in fright as giant ball of bees swarm traffic lights in Limerick City

David Raleigh

Limerick City and County Council said it was investigating how best to deal with a swarm of bees that engulfed a light shrouds at a pedestrian-crossing junction in Limerick City Centre on Friday.

The bees are understood to have swarmed the pedestrian lights to follow and protect their queen.

Some have suggested the Queen and her swarm took up residency at the light structure after being possibly discommoded from their hive following a thunder storm overnight.

Persons were reported to have fled in fright when the swarm grew into a giant ball of bees Friday afternoon.

The swarm is located at the junction of Catherine Street and Roche’s Street.

A passerby said: “People were enjoying their coffees and the fine weather outside the cafes on Roche’s Street and then everyone was going bananas, because inside on the lights there is a queen bee and the bees are all swarming inside it.

“Everyone was avoiding the bees on the street - it was nuts. It’s at the junction of Catherine Street and Roche’s Street.”

“Once they are swarming around the Queen they won’t harm you, so to speak, as they’re too engrossed in the Queen, but if you go up to them and start annoying them then you might be in trouble, but that would be your own fault,” the man said.

“I believe a beekeeper is being called, I literally saw people running away scared and screaming, it looks like something out of a movie.

“A lot of motorists were stopping in traffic looking at it and all their windows were being wound up because the bees could, I suppose, get into your car.

A spokesman for Limerick City and County Council said: “We are assessing the situation to decide what action needs to be taken.”

A Council spokesman said the Council had also reported the matter to Swarms.ie - an online resource to contact a beekeeper which describes itself as “Ireland’s honeybee rescue network”.