Massacre on Las Vegas freeway

Twelve million honeybees -- 480 colonies -- were killed after a truck crash at the junction of Interstate 15 and US95 in Las Vegas. The bees which were on their way to pollinate the Californian almond crop.

Authorities summoned beekeepers to help but decided capturing the bees alive would take too much time and money. Firefighters doused the insects with water to kill them.

At last year's prices, that could be a loss of $25,000 in pollination fees this year alone.

UPDATE 22 Dec 2004: Here's a good picture of the accident. Jim Jones, the Utah beekeeper whose bees were killed reckons he's lost between $100,000 and $200,000.