Bee swarm temporarily shuts down White House press area, sparking doomsday theories: ‘Plague no.8?'
Published May 16, 2026
Thousands of bees descended on the White House North Lawn Friday afternoon, May 15.
This forced reporters to evacuate the area. Witnesses described it as a “bee tornado.”
The huge swarm swarmed over the "Pebble Beach" media compound next to the West Wing for about 20 minutes before peacefully moving over to the grounds where they built themselves a new nest. There were no reports of any injuries or stinging.
This strange event that went viral instantly on the Internet attracted many humorous remarks and conspiracy theories from social media users, comparing the sight to the plagues mentioned in the Bible.
Some users online drew a resemblance of the event to “Plague No.8.”
In the context of the biblical ten plagues of Egypt, the eighth plague is the swarm of locusts.
Multiple conspiracy theories emerged and spread faster than the swarm itself. Some even claimed the bees were nano drones deployed by the government for surveillance.
To make matters worse, the swarms happened only weeks after First Lady Melania Trump revealed that there would be an expansion of the White House Beehive project, where there would now be two additional colonies added to the already two present at the White House.
