Nature & Environment

Nest of 400,000 wasps found in camper van

By T.K. Randall
November 10, 2014

Image: Vespula Germana Wasp
Credit: Richard Bartz / CC BY-SA 2.5 (adapted) The Berkeley resident had been lifting the van with a forklift when swarms of aggressive yellow jackets started to stream out of the bottom of it. Paralyzed with fear, McDougal stayed motionless for over twenty minutes before attempting to flee.

When pest controller Eric McCool arrived on the scene he was astounded by the sheer scale of the infestation. A large percentage of the van's interior had been taken over by the wasps which were thought to number in the hundreds of thousands.Unable to tackle the problem with pesticides, McCool opted to physically crawl inside the vehicle while wearing a beekeeper suit and attempt to remove the insects with a vacuum.

"I was virtually inside the nest," he said. "It was very hot, stuffy. It was like crawling through a bunch of cushions, and you could feel them buzzing against the bee suit."

McCool eventually ended up removing a total of 37 queens from the nest by hand.

Source: Tech Times

Tags: Wasps, Nest