F-22 Raptor Gets Owned By A Bunch Of Honey Bees

F-22 Raptor Gets Owned By A Bunch Of Honey Bees

The F-22 Raptor is one of the US military’s most powerful weapons, but everything — man, woman, sentient rotted orange — has a weakness. For the fighter jet, that weakness is BEEEEEEEEEES!

Image: Carlos Claudio/US Air Force

In June, one of the fleet was found with a massive swarm of honey bees — as many as 20,000, according to the US Air Force, which described the incident this week — attached to its exhaust nozzle. Though some wanted to “get rid” of the bees, Tech Sgt Jeffrey Baskin decided to do the humane thing and call in the experts.

After Langley-Eustis’ resident entomologist realised he couldn’t do crap about the swarm, the base brought in Andy Westrich, a retired Navy member and a local bee keeper, who was able to remove the bees using vacuum hoses.

F-22 Raptor Gets Owned By A Bunch Of Honey Bees
Image: Carlos Claudio/US Air Force

Image: Carlos Claudio/US Air Force

Westrich brought them to a brewery, where they will “maintain the honey bee colony and use the honey for their production facility”. He thinks the swarm may have landed on the F-22 because the queen got tired while flying to a new hive location.

The F-22-hating bees are in good company: In May, a swarm attacked a car in Wales after it apparently drove off with their queen. And in July, a swarm in Canada parked itself on a silver pickup truck.

Perhaps they’re trying to tell us something?

F-22 Raptor Gets Owned By A Bunch Of Honey Bees
Look at all those bees! (Image: Carlos Claudio/US Air Force)

Look at all those bees! (Image: Carlos Claudio/US Air Force)

[Popular Science]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.