This is terrifying!!! Yellow Jacket Wasps are scary enough but a super nest the size of a Volkswagen Beetle? That's just the material nightmares or horror movies are made of.
Officials say these super nests can be attached to cars, inside garages and sheds, in or on the ground, or even to someone's house. Just another reason why I am glad I don't live in Bama.
How is this possible? Charles Ray, an entomologist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, told The New York Times:
"The queens are the only ones who have an antifreeze compound in their blood so normally, a surviving queen will have to start a colony from scratch in the spring. With our climate becoming warmer, there might be multiple surviving queens producing more than 20,000 eggs each."
Multiple queens in one nest? Normally a nest has 4,000 to 5,000 workers, these super nests have close to 15,000. This is a horrible and possibly deadly scenario for humans who disturb the nest. Wasps stings are painful but unless you're allergic or get stung by a swarm of angry Yellow Jackets, you'll survive.
Watch the video below for more details on these super nests.