crawl space under old house

[snappy]

I am going to get a new safe and thought I would check to see if I needed to reinforce the floor before just getting it and sitting it down. as it turns out I will need to reinforce the floor pretty weak, enough to walk on but not to set 2000lb safe and several 100's more lbs in items.

I was down in the crawl space (I only have a half basement the rest is a crawl space) and thought I would take the detector and a lamp down and see if anything was around the space that is crawl space was added to the house in the 50's it use to be a deck. The crawl space is about 3.5' tall 12'X 50' pretty good sized

well the surprise it looked like some insulation was coming down in the far corner so I moved over until I could get a good look I thought I could tell what it was, but no, it could not be it is to large. picked up a rock and threw it at it YEP it was. A HUGE WASP NEST the largest I have ever seen. 3' deep x 5' around during the summer I don't have a wasp problem so it might be a dead hive but WOW the size is huge no wasps around very cold has not gotten above 30 in over 3 months so they could all be asleep left the MD down there and the lamp and got out very quickly just in case (the lamp is warming the area up) I will leave it down there until tomorrow to see if it wakes any of them up if so I will poison them.
the big hives I have seen have been a max size of a basketball, this is the size of a recliner with a fat man sitting in it!

A basket ball sized hive has thousands in it how many would be in this monster.

 

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[sfinder]

Man! That is HUGE!

 

[itsmymind]

Use it for a cashe hideing place

 

[lumbercamp]

That would probably be a dead hive this time of year. The workers die off in the fall and only the queen survives the winter, but she won't be in the hive. She burrows in the ground to wait til spring comes around.

 

[Brendoodl]

You have a giant coccoon. That is going to be the biggest damn butterfly you will ever see. Take pictures when it comes out

 

[p2c]

Check to make sure you don't have any wood damage ... Some of your house evidently became their house. We had something like that several years ago, but they were living in a void in the wall and came in to occupy our guest bedroom, until we killed them.

 

[Knightwalker]

You can say that is a very interesting find. But is it wasp or hornets. Either way I wouldn't want to be the one to get attack by them.
HH in 2010

 

[SassyDetectorette]

That looks scary down there. You should go to the beach.

 

[wrecker]

I remember a movie years ago "Cocoon" (and the second part "Cocoon2"). There were exactly the same things with aliens inside. But you had to keep them under water.

 

[Digger1980]

Hey Yogi,

....and here I thought bears like honey

 

[Deepdiger60]

I was just down to my crawl space 2 days ago that gives me the creeps !! i never seen one that big before

 

[DMN]

Last year in August I had one removed from my house. Not nearly as big as that (maybe 16" x 36" x 12"). But they decided to get in the overhang of my house andinto the basement, above the hanging ceiling. At night I used to hear a purring in the living room. Thought it was coming from outside. Then I thought it was a rattling of on of the heating pipes because the sound would stop when I would thump the floor. It wasn't until my girlfriend saw some yellow jackets flying out from the overhang in the front of the house did I discover the nest. Looked above the tiles...saw that nest, covered in yellow jackets. Seems at night yellow jackets all go to bed. They run their wings as a sort of air conditioner to regulate the temps in the hive, hence the soothing "purring" sound.

Closed up the room in the basement, called the Terminex man, and took the rest of the day off from the house. I figured maybe a 1000 or so in that nest. Could not imagine how many would be in that Smart Car sized condo you have. After about 40 degrees they go dormant and then they die off as noted previously.

Just a nice tid bit about wasps: They have 2 ways to attack, they can bite and sting. And it's the bite that can inflict toxins. The same week I found that nest I was biten by a wasp. The dot on the back of my hand eventually swelled up to a nice dollar-sized welt. Had a weeks worth of antibiotics just for that. Wouldn't want to guess what a few of them might do. The Terminex guy said becareful since dead wasps can sting just like live ones.

 

[HCW]

I'm a contractor by trade and gutted a wall a few years back . One of the stud bays(15"x4"x8') was full floor to ceiling with one of those . The wall was humming .This was August when we discovered it. We waited till October to do the demo.

 

[hikeinmts]

Soak that sucker with Hot Shot Wasp and Hornet Spray. That will kill any in the hive, and it will kill any returning to it. (If they are in hibernation, then you will kill all of them, and won't have any spring-time problem.
We have the killer wasps here in S. Korea. And they are spreading. And they do kill.....anything that they attack in force. I was clearing a coin site area, was backing up, and suddenly got stung 3 times in my right shoulder. Ran as soon as they hit me. And, luckily for me, they didn't follow. My right shoulder went numb, and I sat down, waiting to see what the poisen was going to do. Got to the top of my shoulder, and then the pain and numbness went away. So, I got my Hot Shot, went up the hill from them, and shot into their nest.
In the last two years, reports of 2 Korean people per year being killed by those bad guys. They aren't to be played with.
Glad you found it and not the other way around.

 

[itsmymind]

SassyDetectorett; Welcome to the forum. You will like it here as there are a lot of nice people and a wealth of information. HH

 

[zaweiss]

Hey...maybe you could contact the Conservation department...they might want to keep it for educational purposes.

That might be a record.....largest wasp nest known to man...hahah

 

[Weddle546]

Hey Yogi,

....and here I thought bears like honey

I dont care who you are thats funny right there! Yeah That has to be the biggest one i have ever seen. i wonder if a university would want to study it. It just may be one of the biggest ones found. who knows I am glad you didnt get stung and good luck on future hunts.

 

[Weddle546]

Oh and interesting factoid. You can kill bees and wasps easily with just dish soap and water. The bubbles suffocate them. didn't believe it till i tried it. Now i have a super soaker just for the summer time.

 

[Brian(upstateNY-Central Fla.)]

Thats the largest I've seen for sure

 

[redneck13126]

that is one large nest i would have freaked out seeing that im allergic and hate wasps honey bees dont bother me for some reason but man thats seems like a record nest