TERRIFYING: Man Excavate Wasp Nest in New Zealand [Video]

This is one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen.

From Bob Brown:

This is a video of me digging an invasive German wasp (Vespula germanica) nest for my research on biological control wasps at Landcare Research in NZ. I’m not removing the nest to kill it. I need to keep the nest alive for my survey for parasites (like mites, fungus, etc.). Some nests will be re-housed into nest boxes for use in behaviour assays.

I have many years of experience and use specialized equipment to do this and still get the odd sting, so please don’t try to dig an active nest yourself! As you can see from the copious amount of venom on the camera lens, these wasps meant business.

[Bob Brown]