BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–This week, Eric “Critter” McCool of McCool Wildlife Services, cleared what possibly was the largest yellow jacket nest ever in all of South Carolina.
“The possibility of killing this nest with pesticides was virtually impossible — it was too big,” McCool told Channel 4.
For McCool, it was definitely that largest yellow jacket extraction in the history of his company. He had the task of removing in from a popup camper located in Berkeley County Tuesday.
“I had to go inside and pull all the paper, all the hive and all the brood,” he said. “It was pretty insane and quite the adrenaline rush. The bee’s nest was underneath the bench, inside the cabinets, all over the stove it was everywhere.”
The pulp of the nest, an estimated 10 feet by 7 feet, 2 feet high, was reportedly enough to stuff the interior of an old Volkswagen Beetle.
“I sat in the chair with my arms like this (crossed) for about 20 minutes. I was scared,” Robert McDougal of Moncks Corner told the Post & Courier.
McDougal, a lifelong Moncks Corner resident, told the paper the camper was left in the back of his storage yard in the Cane Bay community. He says he was shocked when he saw the size of the next and the thousands of yellow jackets swarming from it.
McCool estimated that around 400,000 yellow jackets were hovering around the 70 square-foot camper.
“It was pretty insane and quite the adrenaline rush. The bee’s nest was underneath the bench, inside the cabinets, all over the stove it was everywhere,” stated McCool.
The captured bees were released after the extraction process was over, but McCool said most of them will likely die off in the cold without a nest and a queen to follow.
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