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A three-foot-wide (0.91 metre) wasp nest has caused a buzz in Winchester, England.
The nest is unusually large, but what may be more surprising is its location. A man walking into a rarely-used spare room at his mother’s house was reportedly shocked to find some 5,000 wasps had almost taken over the bed.
The woman had not been into the room for months, pest controllers said, but a window had been left open, which is believed to have been the catalyst for the mammoth endeavour.
And the nest was still expanding. John Birkett of Longwood Services pest control company said it had been growing for several months.
“We got a call as we normally do,” Birkett explained. “But a bedroom – I thought that was unusual. I opened the door and I just couldn’t believe it. The pillow was covered in this 3ft wasps’ nest and the workers were still busy building the nest.”
“There must have been 5,000 wasps,” he continued.
“I got dressed up like a spaceman and tried to destroy as many as I could with the workers flying around the room. In that nest there must have been up to 700 queen wasps.”
Although it seems to have stung him to kill the wasps, Birkett couldn’t find another way to clear the room. But his admiration for the insects’ hard work was evident. “I did think was a wonderful job they had done,” he said.
Image credit: Longwood Services Pest Control