Man Finds Giant Wasps' Nest in Bed

A British man visiting his mother discovered her spare bedroom was already in use—by thousands of wasps that had chewed up the mattress and pillows to make a 3-foot-wide nest on the bed. Pest controller John Birkett says a small window in the bedroom had been left open and the wasps had been at work for at least three months. "It was like the horror film Birds but [with] wasps," he tells ABC, saying the infestation in Hampshire, England, was the biggest wasps' nest—and the strangest incident—in his 45 years in the business.

Birkett says he "dressed up like a spaceman" to get rid of the 5,000-strong swarm, which included hundreds of queen wasps, reports the Guardian. The exterminator, who was able to rescue a blanket on the bed, seems to have gained a lot of respect for wasps during his decades in the business: "It was a work of art and they had worked so hard, but she looked at it and said, 'No, no, no—you've got to get rid of it,'" he says. "If they did that in three-and-a-half months, that's amazing, isn't it? They're just little things." (More wasps stories.)