Month: September 2016

Home renovations can turn up some strange things, but a family in the UK found something slightly more alarming than mold or a leaky roof. The Pipewell, England residents discovered a 3-foot-wide nest made by wasps that had taken up permanent residence in the attic of their new home, the BBC reports.

According to the Northampton Chronicle & Echo, a property that had sat unoccupied for years was once home to some 10,000 wasp squatters. Undisturbed by human activity, the wasps constructed a massive sphere connected to the outside by a long, “intricate” tunnel.

The discovery was made by exterminators who had been called in to treat a woodworm infestation and subsequently discovered a much bigger issue when the homeowner asked them to have a look at the massive orb in the attic. While not quite world record material—that honor belongs to a New Zealand nest found in 1963 measuring 12 feet long and 5 feet in diameter—it was still enough to cause a temporary case of buyer’s remorse.

Gary Wilkinson, who owns the pest control business Pest Professionals, told the Chronicle that the nest was an impressive feat of insect engineering.

“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,” he said.

[h/t BBC]

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