A whopping eight million bees have been found dead on a farm in Brazil, with officials suspecting they were killed in a mass poisoning.
The mass death occurred on a farm in Maua da Serra in recent weeks, said agricultural officials in Parana state.
They believe a toxic pesticide or other chemical products may have been used on fields in the area.
Footage shows countless bees covering the ground, some motionless and others twitching sporadically.
The affected beekeeper has calculated personal losses of more than BRL 130,000 (GBP 21,000).
The Parana Agricultural Development Institute (IDR) and Parana Agricultural Protection Bureau (Adapar) have taken samples of the insects and local plants for analysis.
They hope to identify the product that caused the mass death, as well as the person who used it.
Other farms in the area will also be inspected as part of the probe.
The incident is just the latest instalment in a string of bad luck for the affected beekeeper.
This is the third mass bee death he has recorded in just a year.
In one incident, he lost 4.5 million bees to pesticides.
And in another, an intense cold spell caused thousands of his bees to die of hunger.
Civil Police are investigating the latest case, with the investigation expected to last three months.
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Story By: William McGee, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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