Huge Swarm Of Bees Shows Up On White House Lawn

Journalists at the White House were taken aback on Friday when they encountered an unexpected obstacle: a swarm of bees blocking the driveway.

“Walking into the White House and seeing a swarm of bees blocking the driveway,” wrote NewsNation White House reporter Kellie Meyers wrote on X. “Time to turn around.”

Fox News White House reporter Alexandria Hoff shared, “So a huge swarm of bees briefly took over the north lawn driveway at the White House.” In her video showing just that, a voice described the spectacle as a “bee tornado.”

Reuters published a photo of the flying insects taken by freelance journalist Andrew Leyden, who also shared a video on X of the “White House press corps” dodging the bee swarm.

Honeybees have been a part of the White House since 2009, when Charlie Brandt, a White House carpenter and pollinator enthusiast, founded a beekeeping program. Last month, Melania Trump unveiled a new beehive shaped like a miniature White House.

Social media was flooded with jokes about the bee swarm incident on Friday.

“Bee best,” wrote CBS reporter Kathryn Watson, making a playful reference to Melania Trump’s anti-cyberbullying campaign.

Some posts and news coverage referred to the bees as “angry” or “attacking” the White House, but in reality, honeybee swarms are not aggressive.

Swarms occur when a colony gets a new queen, prompting the old queen to leave with some worker bees in search of a new home.

“Swarming bees are actually non-threatening, and swarming behavior is a natural way for bees to reproduce,” wrote entomologist Tim Gibb in 2022.