British family discovers one-metre-wide wasp nest while renovating

A family in Britain made a horrifying discovery when they started renovations, and it wasn’t just old photos in the attic. 

They came across a one-metre-wide wasp nest in the attic that was once home to as many as 10,000 wasps.

Fortunately the nest was empty and had been for some time. 

The family, who have not been identified, had just moved into a new house which had been unoccupied for several years, giving the wasps the privacy needed to build such a large and intricate colony.  

Pest controller Gary Wilkinson, of Northamptonshire pest controllers Pest Professionals, was called in to remove the nest. 

“It’s an impressive wasp nest all right – much bigger than a barrel. It’s the biggest I’ve ever seen by quite a margin,” he told the BBC. 

“Although you wouldn’t want it in your own loft, you have to say it’s a very impressive and in its own way a very beautiful thing.”

Wilkinson said hundreds of dead common wasps (Vespula vulgaris) were found next to the nest. 

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Not content with just building a gargantuan nest, the wasps also built a 1.4 metre tunnel to the nest from the outside of the house – an uncommon wasp behaviour. 

The nest is much larger than the average wasp home which holds around 3000 wasps, but it’s not quite a record breaker. 

A 3.7-metre-long nest was found in New Zealand in 1963 and still holds the world record. That particular nest would have been home to half a million wasps.