8,000 swarming honeybees rescued from World Trade Center

This problem was more sticky than sweet. 

Police were called to a humming scene in lower Manhattan on Saturday night when a gang of bees took up residence on the side of a skyscraper. 

“There was quite the buzz late last night at 3 World Trade Center as 8,000 honeybees swarmed the side of the building,” the NYPD tweeted on Sunday. “Thankfully, a quick response from @NYPDBees resulted in the safe capture of our flying friends who were relocated without incident to an apple orchard.” 

Accompanying photos of the well-pollinated situation show what appears to be a portion of the 80-story structure’s first floor so densely covered in bees that the material beneath isn’t visible. 

The insect invasion just blocks from the Freedom Tower was not the first the NYPD’s bee unit had to deal with this year: Earlier this month, some 20,000 bees needed to be removed from a low-hanging tree branch in Queens, PIX11 reported. Also this month, a separate, 15,000-bee swarm needed to be dealt with elsewhere in the outer borough. 

Officer Darren Mays of the NYPD’s beekeeping unit had previously explained to the outlet that police use a special vacuum that doesn’t harm the bees in such situations. Mays noted that the reason why bees swarm is often due to the fact that their hive has become overcrowded. 

In recent years, the NYPD beekeeping unit’s charges aren’t the only thing that’ve buzzed them into the headlines. Detective Robert Travis, 39, made Post headlines in September for his single status and valiant, viral removal of a massive hive of honeybees near Times Square. 

“I just got me and my dog,” Travis told The Post of his marital status in an interview at the time. 

​​“I’m fascinated by them, just the way they work,” he said of his feelings about working with bees, both on the job and upstate off the clock, where he keeps about 40,000 bees for his personal enjoyment. “They can all coordinate together to form one big task.”