An exterminator, who coincidentally dressed exactly like a professional beekeeper, was called as an entire colony of bees stopped the San Diego Padres game against the Miami Marlins. A 28-minute delay, and a giant can Raid, was all it took to get the game going again. Dead bees rained down from the sky, their lifeless corpses collecting in a pile on Petco Park's infield.
Videos by FanBuzz
The global bee population is plummeting, but the San Diego Fathers don't seem to mind. After all, the ballpark was three-fourths full on Sunday (pretty impressive by MLB standards these days) and baseball needed to played! It was time to get the show on the road, and not even proper removal of a struggling species would slow down another unimportant game of June baseball.
The swarm of bees collected on a microphone during the third inning, which isn't all that uncommon at ballparks during the summer. Maybe these bees didn't pay full price for admission to sit behind home plate? Regardless of the critters' financial situation, rather than humanely wrangle up them up and take them away, "Jack the Ripper of Bees" started blasting away with poison in a can.
Their burial was being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner.
Needless to say, social media warriors, some of which would probably run away if a bee came too close, were abuzz (get it?) during Major League Baseball's bee delay and became very upset about the disrespect for this homeless colony.
“Bees! Bees! Bees in the car! Bees Everywhere! God, they’re huge! They’re ripping my flesh off!” pic.twitter.com/uQiQ0ucZtx
— Cut4 (@Cut4) June 2, 2019
Wtf! @Padres just killed an ENTIRE SWARM of bees...why?? Bc they were inconvenient. pic.twitter.com/fzRDGaz1aZ
— Heather Martin (@triheatherm) June 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/WillieOReeFan/status/1135708076315537408
WATCH: Your Worst Nightmare Comes True as Bees Invade Giants-Reds Game
Even the New York Police Department's bee keepers (who invents these jobs?) chimed in from the other side of the country. Using the NYPD Bees Twitter account, the department made sure to let the Padres know their handling of the situation was less than ideal. They even commended the "referee" who they claimed must've been "educated enough to know the behavior of bees."
Yeah, I'm sure that one's in the MLB umpire handbook.
This really bothered me. That guy in a beekeeper suit was not a beekeeper. He was an exterminator. Most exterminators that I know of would have a beekeeper on call for jobs like this. Shame on that exterminating company and the exterminator himself. https://t.co/ZDmwNA1YTu
— NYPD Bees (@NYPDBees) June 3, 2019
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
Don't worry. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is on the case, too.
In response to one disgruntled fan's tweet, PETA said the incident was sent to its Cruelty Investigation Department for further investigation.
I have forwarded this info to our Cruelty Investigation Department. Thanks for your compassion!
— PETA (@peta) June 3, 2019
Will this be the last time bees swarm a baseball game, sending kids with cotton candy stuck to their face and spectators, armed with EpiPens, running for the hills? No, but you can be sure the San Diego Dads will keep a local beekeeper on speed dial for next time.
And if paying for a professional bee keeper is the issue, well, then they shouldn't have spent $300 million for Manny Machado's .251 batting average.
