Massive Yellow Jacket Nest, Balls of Steel

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Faulkville man discovers massive yellow jacket nest

BLOOMINGDALE, GA (WTOC) -

It looks like something out of a horror movie -- a web of intersecting nests believed to be home to more than 1,000 yellow jacket wasps.

Tony Young, of Faulkville, unearthed the colony beneath his neighbor's front porch.

The nest is around 2.5 feet by five feet long and nearly two feet deep.

Young's neighbor, who lives in the home with her three-year-old daughter, had been complaining about the wasps on and around her porch since right around the time the child was born.

"I just took a notion to help her out," Young said. "Every step she made was vibrating the nest."

Young discovered the underground nest when cleaning out beneath the porch with a rake. He says yellow jackets came pouring out. He didn't run but stood as still as he could. He says he was only bitten once.

James Poole, of Yates-Astro Pest Control, estimates more than 1,000 yellow jackets lived in the hive. Poole said yellow jackets can have more than one queen in a colony, allowing them to grow to massive sizes if left unchecked.

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