--- title: Millions of Bees Killed in South Carolina During Zika Spray description: Millions of honeybees have died in South Carolina during aerial mosquito spraying operations that were carried out to combat the Zika virus. canonical: https://time.com/4477075/bees-killed-south-carolina-mosquito-spraying-zika/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-01T22:46:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:07:06.031Z article:section: Science og:title: Millions of Bees Killed in South Carolina During Mosquito Spraying og:description: The spraying was carried out to combat the Zika virus og:url: https://time.com/4477075/bees-killed-south-carolina-mosquito-spraying-zika/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Millions of Bees Killed in South Carolina During Mosquito Spraying twitter:description: The spraying was carried out to combat the Zika virus twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Millions of Bees Killed in South Carolina During Mosquito Spraying to Combat Zika  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Sep 1, 2016 10:46 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Sep 1, 2016 10:46 PM UTC [Millions of honeybees have died](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/dd22243f1e2e4d14a3e86711904d9294/collateral-damage-bees-die-south-carolina-zika-spraying) in South Carolina during aerial mosquito spraying operations that were carried out to combat the [Zika](http://time.com/4472434/zika-can-also-cause-hearing-loss-study/) virus. The mosquito spraying over the weekend left more than 2 millions bees dead on the spot in Dorchester County, S.C., where four travel-related cases of [Zika](http://time.com/4476376/florida-finds-zika-mosquitoes/) have been confirmed in the area, according to the Associated Press. Most of the casualties came from Flowertown Bee Farm and Supply, a company in Summerville that sells honeybee hives. Juanita Stanley, who co-owns the company, said the farm “looks like it’s been nuked,” the AP reports. The farm lost 46 hives, which had about 2.5 million bees, according to the [Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/01/like-its-been-nuked-millions-of-bees-dead-after-south-carolina-sprays-for-zika-mosquitoes/). Dorchester County officials apologized for the unintentional mass extermination, the [_Post and Courier_](http://www.postandcourier.com/20160830/160839915/dorchester-county-apologizes-after-millions-of-honeybees-killed-by-mosquito-spraying) reports. “Dorchester County is aware that some beekeepers in the area that was sprayed on Sunday lost their beehives,” County Administrator Jason Ward said in a statement. “I am not pleased that so many bees were killed.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4477075/bees-killed-south-carolina-mosquito-spraying-zika/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4477075/bees-killed-south-carolina-mosquito-spraying-zika/"},"headline":"Millions of Bees Killed in South Carolina During Mosquito Spraying to Combat Zika","datePublished":"2016-09-01T22:46:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:07:06.031Z","description":"The honeybee farm \"looks like it's been nuked\"","url":"https://time.com/4477075/bees-killed-south-carolina-mosquito-spraying-zika/","keywords":["animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4477075/bees-killed-south-carolina-mosquito-spraying-zika/","name":"Millions of Bees Killed in South Carolina During Mosquito Spraying to Combat Zika"}}]}] ```