South Carolina Just Wiped Out Millions Of Bees With Powerful Insecticide

South Carolina might want to rethink their strategy when it comes to ridding the state of Zika. Dorchester Country went ahead with spraying a powerful insecticide over the countryside resulting in the death of millions of bees.

These pollinators are crucial to the environment and are now gone due to country officials giving the green light on an insecticide called Naled. Naled is meant to kill mosquitoes on contact, but during this process, millions of bees were taken out as well. Not only that, but Naled is designed to come from a truck spraying it into the designated area, not overhead from a plane.

The spraying occurred on Sunday morning around 6:30 a.m., and although not harmful to humans, it affected the bees immediately.

Dorchester County officials did acknowledge what happened in a public statement saying, the county is “aware that some beekeepers in the area that was sprayed on Sunday lost their beehives.” One beekeeper even told a local Charleston WCSC-TV news reporter, “Had I known, I would have been camping on the steps doing whatever I had to do screaming, ‘No you can’t do this.’”

This massive accident comes at a bad time, as bee populations are down and this was a high tide time period of pollination.

[H/T Gizmodo, Washington Post, Flowerton Bee Farm And Supplies]