I bought an air conditioner for my son’s room today, and when I went to take the cover off the air conditioner space in the wall, I found the biggest hornet’s nest I’ve ever seen. This thing literally fills up the entire box where an air conditioner is supposed to sit. I didn’t see any hornets in it, and I haven’t seen any flying around the apartment, but I’m very leery of disturbing it. I’m allergic to bees and wasps, etc., and even if I weren’t, I’d be intimidated by the sheer size of this thing.
If I don’t see any hornets, is it safe to assume that this is an abandoned nest? Should I give it a thorough spray with insecticide…call an exterminator…or what? I’ve got the creeps big time just thinking about the thing.
If there’s no activity at all during the day, the nest is abandoned. Hornets, bees and wasps expend a terrific amount of energy maintaining their nests, and if you don’t see any, there aren’t any. It’s safe to handle.
it sounds like it might be a yellowjacket nest vaguely spherical, grey and papery) - assuming you’re posting from the northern hemisphere there would be lots of activity at this time of year if it were a ‘live’ colony.
Yellowjacket nests are an annual phenomenon; they start from a single queen and are built up in the space of a few summer months, producing a number of new queens, who leave to find places to overwinter - the workers all die and the nest is left empty.
One last check though - is the inspection cover that you removed indoors? - is the nest entrance hole (at the bottom) visible from where you opened up the cabinet? - I’m concerned about the very slight possibility that we say 'yeah, go ahead and remove it", only to find that you’ve been looking at just the back of the nest, the entrance hole opening exclusively to the outside or something.
The cover is indoors, yes, and no, I didn’t see an entrance hole. I did poke at it just now with a screw driver and didn’t see anything, after ripping a section off. I would love to call the maintenance people, but they won’t be able to come until Monday, and with this heat, I’d like to get the AC up tonight. Wish I’d gotten the AC earlier in the week so that I would have been able to call someone to come look at this thing. I’m not really terrified of many things, but this is one of them. I’m such a wimp!
It is best to be cautious with these things; multiple stings from an angry swarm can be quite unpleasant (I speak from bitter experience) and even life-threatening.
Did you say you have torn away part of the outer nest wall? if you have, and you can see inside to the layered brood cells, AND you’re not now being attacked by wasps, then I think it is almost certainly a ‘dead’ nest.
Thank you all so much! I took it down and didn’t see a single one of the buggers. You would not believe how horrid the nest smells though. I think I’m going to have to thoroughly clean out the AC box to get rid of the odor, but soon I’ll have the AC up and the kid can sleep in comfort.
My son came home right as I was taking the nest out. He took one look at it, and yelled out. “WAIT!!!”
I was already feeling quite the adrenalin surge, and was panicking, thinking that he had seen wasps or something coming out.
If you had only known they were there you could have replaced the wood inside panel with a glass cover. Hours of fun for the whole family, and kicks the ‘ant farm’ in the butt. I had a nest in my backyard that lasted about 3 years. Much fun to watch.