Sterling Heights bee colonies destroyed

Honey bee colonies worth $14,000 doused with pesticides

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – Someone killed several thousand honey bees worth $14,000 in Sterling Heights.

Bee keeper Timothy Fitch was cultivating the insects in his backyard on Haverhill Street, near 16 Mile and Van Dyke Avenue.

"Bees are the largest pollinators that we have, 75 percent of all crops for human consumption are pollinated by the honey bee," said Fitch.

The bees lived in seven wooden towers and Fitch said the colonies survived there all year, even in freezing temperatures.

But, Fitch says the bees were all killed and their honey destroyed after they were doused with pesticide last week.

"I noticed all of the bees were frozen in time, as if they were going about their day and suddenly something happened, and they all just stopped," he said.

Back in August an anonymous complaint was made to police about the bees. Fitch was also fighting a city zoning violation for the amount of bees on the property.

Fitch isn't sure if that ongoing case is connected to the attack on his bees, but says each bee tower was valued at $2,000.

"I have a lot of money tied up into it because, it was something I was very passionate about," he said.

The Sterling Heights police are investigating the incident.