A South Carolina business owner was sitting on his chair when he first saw the strange
mass inside the vehicle on the end of his forklift. Quickly realizing what it was,
the man saw that its inhabitants were angry at being disturbed. If he moved too quickly or in
the wrong way, he could be in serious trouble, but he urgently needed help.
On November 7th 2014, a resident of Moncks corner, South Carolina found himself in a
dangerous situation. That citizen was Robert McDougal, who runs a truck hauling business called
“hurry up towing”. And during his business that day, McDougal ran into some serious difficulty.
To start with McDougal's day, didn't seem to be particularly noteworthy. Soon however,
things took a turn for the worse and it all began with a camper van parked at his storage depot. In
the chaos that followed moreover, McDougal would soon regret ever seeing the vehicle.
McDougal was using a forklift truck to shift the camper, when suddenly he noticed something.
Yes, there was movement inside the vehicle, as though something had been disturbed.
Whatever it was, wasn't staying confined to the camper though. In fact, it was swarming out to
see what was pestering it. That it, turned out to be a huge swarm of angry insects. Initially,
McDougal took the buzzing black and yellow bugs for bees, and naturally he was terrified by them.
“I sat in the chair with my arms, like this crossed for about 20 minutes. I was scared”,
he told the post and courier on November 5th, 2014. It may have been McDougal's fright that
stopped the situation becoming more dangerous though. You see potentially owing to his lack of
movement, McDougal escaped without a single sting. He did however, need the insects removed so that
he could finish his job. Obviously, there was a nest in the camper somewhere. So, McDougal called
in an expert, Eric Critter Mccool. McCool runs a pest control business and his company is perhaps
best known for removing hives. What's more, the Pennsylvanian based pro operates worldwide.
And having worked in pest control for more than 25 years, McCool was definitely the man for the
job. Subsequently he arrived at the scene of the pandemonium and identified the problem.
It turned out though it wasn't bees that were nesting in the camper van, but yellow jackets.
Also, if you have not done so already, please subscribe to our channel and click
that notification bell to get inspired by these animal stories every day. Now, back to the story.
Yellow jackets are a type of wasp. Yes! although they can be mistaken for bees, the wasps are
actually quite different. Regardless, the nest had to go. So McCool, ventured into the camper
to locate it and to his surprise finding it was not the problem. In fact, McCool couldn't miss it.
“You see the nest was so gigantic that it was taking over the inside of the vehicle.
I was virtually inside the nest, it was a very hot and stuffy”, McCool told the post and courier,
“it was like crawling through a bunch of cushions. And it seemed like the yellow jackets didn't
appreciate an invader in their midst either.” “You could feel them buzzing against the bee
suit”, he recalled. But while McDougal was stunned by the size of the nest, he was even more
surprised to learn McCool wasn't using pesticides. I told McCool, “He was crazy”, McDougall said.
According to tech times on November 7th, 2014 at McCool explained that “they weren't an option”.
The possibility of killing this nest with pesticides was virtually impossible. It
was too big. Consequently, his options were limited. Fellow pest removal experts advised
burning the nest, but McCool disagreed. Under the circumstances, he decided that
the best option was to remove the hive manually. To many though, that would be a daunting prospect,
even with a protective bee suit on. When McCool was later asked, how he went about
the removal. His answer was simple, “Be vacuum and grabbing bags, quite an adrenaline rush”.
He told the post and courier and the technique proved surprisingly effective. Fascinatingly too,
37 Queens were extracted from the hive as it was destroyed.
Even inside his protective suit though, McCool was still stung six times by the tenacious insects.
Then again, McCool estimates that during his career, he suffered around 6,000 stings. The pest
controller therefore remained unfazed throughout the operation. And the nest was torn up by hand.
McCool later, described the nest as massive, and he wasn't wrong either.
Indeed, the nest was considered one of the largest who have ever been found in South Carolina.
The wasps home in fact, stood a whopping two feet tall and measured 10 feet by seven feet. What's
more McCool said it probably housed around 350,000 yellow jackets. So was McDougall in
any danger from the yellow jackets at all? Well, a few stings won't prove fatal unless
the victim has an allergic reaction. A few hundred thousand stings could be a different
matter altogether though. And unlike most bees yellow jackets are aggressive insects, especially
in the vicinity of their hive. What's more? In addition to the yellow jackets hostile nature,
if anything threatens them, they will pursue their target doggedly.
And another way in which yellow jackets differ from bees is that, the latter are reluctant to
sting. That's because a honeybee often loses its sting after the attack, leading to its death.
Yellow jackets, meanwhile can often sting many times over. Experts, therefore advise calling
pest control if a confirmed yellow jacket nest is found close to humans or domestic animal.
But if you insist on tackling the problem yourself,
pouring boiling water or releasing insect spray on the nest may work. It's a risky approach though
and one best left to the professionals. Alternatively, placing imitation nests in
your yard can deter stinging insects from using your property in the first place.
As for the yellow jackets that McCool captured, they will be released at a different location.
Whether they will survive without a queen or a nest however, is another story.
If you liked the video, please give it a thumbs up and consider sharing
it with your friends and family. Thanks again. And we'll see you in the next one.