Aug 15, 2009

Monster Wasp Nests

Warmer winters have led to some interesting developments. Take the image below, for instance. An Alabama man decided not to eradicate the yellow jacket nest that had blossomed in his old '55 Chevy truck. He let it run wild, and this was the result. If the average yellow jacket's nest houses 3,000 wasps, how much does this one hold?

I hope he doesn't have any neighbors. I don't know exactly how I'd feel about a guy who renders my yard unusable, but it wouldn't be charitable.

Thanks for the hornets, Moneca.

Photo source: AutoBlogGreen.com


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

O.M.G. OMG. OMG. OMG. O.M.G!!!!

When I was a kid, I accidentally stepped on a yellow jacket hive which was in the ground. The whole swarm (several hundred, based on the number of stings I had on my person) came out and attacked me. It was both painful and terrifying, and I was traumatised rather badly. I'm more or less okay now, but I still get quite panicky if there's a buzzing insect too close to me.

The idea of someone actually ALLOWING these horrible, vicious, nasty, evil, [insert many other adjectives to indicate badness] creatures to live anywhere near humans is beyond my ability to comprehend.

I hope for this guy's sake he never has the misfortune of disturbing that nest...

Phoebe said...

It's like H.R. Giger took over the car.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that definitely looks like something out of Aliens.

Zanna said...

Dear god! I am actually tolerant of many species of stinging insects, and have even let a hive of paper wasps live in my living room windowsill for several seasons (keeping the window closed at all times of course). But those were paper wasps, hunters which are typically passive and keep away from humans while eradicating other insect pests. But I have absolutely NO respect for yellow jackets- they're scavengers and as far as I can tell have little benefit to the environments they plague. If someone can correct me and tell me just what the hell a yellow jacket is good for, please do.

Jelo said...

Mother of Meatloaf... Dude, I agree with Phoebe totally. It's like Geiger had a field day with that poor fool's truck.

Seriously, I half expect some slime-covered fellow to emerge from there saying "kill me...please".

...now where did I leave my flamethrower?

Unknown said...

I think I saw something like this in an old bad "B" movie once. I wouldn't even get close enough to photograph it now!!

Jeff said...

Good Lord! I've been reading Ugly Overload for a while, and that's the first picture that's actually made me shudder.

You can mark each entry as "funny", "interesting", "cool" or gross. What, no box to check for "spine-chillingly horrifying"?

Anonymous said...

Wow. Here in Texas the biggest nest I have seen was no more than two inches across (the type of nest that yellow jackets make here are usually no bigger around than a silver dollar and hang from branches, eaves, etc, by a slender thread of paper. Not terribly impressive.

That is one hell of a nest.