The NYPD’s top cops when it comes to bees, are crying foul over Major League Baseball’s use of deadly force against a swarm of honeybees Sunday during a game between the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres.
A large mass of bees congregated on a microphone behind home plate during the third inning. Not an altogether uncommon thing for this time of year. However, instead of finding a way to capture and remove the bees, an exterminator climbed up to the microphone and killed them with a lethal spray.
The NYPD Bees — a Twitter account representing the two-man team that handles bee-related emergencies — made their complaints known:
This was not handled humanely. These honeybees were killed by an extermination company instead of having a beekeeper come and remove them. @MLB please have each park have a beekeeper’s number on file for instances like this. https://t.co/Gmpdwu3eYj
— NYPD Bees (@NYPDBees) June 4, 2019
According to the New York Post:
The CBS News report said that the game between the Miami Marlins and the Padres was delayed for about half an hour after the discovery of the swarm of honeybees attached to a microphone near the Padres’ dugout.
They called an exterminator who sprayed the bees, killing them, and then vacuumed the dead bees off the field.
The NYPD beekeepers, a two-man team who spoke to The Post last week, often take home the swarms of bees they take off of city streets.
The game was delayed for over 30 minutes. MLB did not return the Post’s request for comment.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn
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