"Why Are They Acting Like This?" Packed Together... Honeybees Suddenly Die as Heatwave Continues

[Anchor]

Plants and animals are also suffering from this scorching heat. Beekeeping farms are concerned about the mass die-off of bees, while flower farms worry that their flower plants will wither and die.

Reporter Kwon Min-kyu covered the scene.

[Reporter]

Today (July 30), at a beekeeping farm in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, where a heatwave warning was issued during the day.

Thousands of honeybees are clinging to the entrance of every single one of the more than 80 beehives.

They took refuge outside the hive as the interior turned into a sauna due to the blazing heat.

The farmers put up shading nets to block the sunlight and spray water every hour, but it is far from enough to cool down the heat.

The beehive I am holding right now is one that usually has about 5,000 bees attached to it.

However, there are only about 1,500 bees on both sides now.

Because the weather is so hot, the bees have escaped toward the entrance or spread out in all directions.

[Jeong Byeong-woo / Beekeeping Farmer: First, hornets come. Second, toads come. They come at night and eat (the bees).]

In addition, due to the heatwave, the queen bee's spawning and hatching are not taking place properly, raising concerns that it could lead to a mass die-off.

[Kim Seon-hee / Former Gyeonggi Branch Head, Korean Beekeeping Association: People are dying right now, too. How can insects that cannot speak survive? I feel like temperatures are rising by about 2 degrees Celsius each year.]

This worry is no different in flower complex areas.

Succulents and cacti are struggling in the heat, and the only facilities to cool them down are ventilation fans for air circulation.

This is the inside of a farm measuring over 3,969 square meters.

The current indoor temperature is 36.5°C (98°F), exactly the same as human body temperature.

Even cacti, which grow in hot weather, have ended up dying like this.

[Gu Hwa-sun / Flower Farmer: Since cacti are 90% moisture, they rot if it is humid. A lot of them die in the summer. There is nothing we can do.]

In an already hot summer, the hearts of the farmers are burning up as well.

(Photo: Yang Ji-hoon | Video Editing: Choi Hye-ran)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.