Vancouver woman shocked to find wasp nest inside sweater (PHOTOS)

Olga Ermolova/Submitted

A Vancouver woman made a terrifying discovery in her closet last week when she found a small wasp’s nest inside one of her sweaters.

Olga Ermolova lives in the West End and had been keeping her windows open during the warm weather. She lives close to Stanley Park so she’s used to seeing wildlife — from hummingbirds outside the window to a squirrel that climbed to her 10th-floor balcony.

But recently, a wasp came into her apartment that triggered her suspicions.

“What was weird is that wasps normally fly around, they look for anything sweet they can find in the house,” she said. “This particular wasp was not interested in anything in our apartment. It just went straight to the wardrobe, and disappeared there.”

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After it happened a couple of times, she decided to check inside her wardrobe. She didn’t see anything at first but could hear “very quiet movement” and started inspecting her clothes.

Inside one blue sweater, which she used to wear to the office, she saw what looked like a grey lamp — and realized it was a wasp nest.

Olga Ermolova/Submitted

“I had mixed feelings. It was funny, I would never think… But it was also slightly frightening. I didn’t know if it was one single wasps, or if others would fly out of the nest.”

Ermolova and her boyfriend lifted the sweater out of the wardrobe with a ski pole and took it out on the balcony, where they started beating it with the ski pole. That didn’t dislodge the nest though, and they had to wait while a wasp inside flew away.

Ermolova ended up cutting the nest off with scissors. Inside, she found the distinctive hexagon-shaped cubicles with larvae.

The couple disposed of the wasp nest on Sunday, and on Wednesday, saw the first wasp return to the apartment — so they sprayed bug spray.

“We really love wildlife, we feel sorry for the wasps,” she said. “But still, we wanted to mitigate the risk that we come into contact with the wasp, and it might still bite us. We wanted to avoid that.”

Ermolova is speaking out to warn others to be careful and check their closets, especially if they have allergies, pets, or young children in the house.

Olga Ermolova/Facebook

Apparently, this isn’t the first time wasps have made a nest inside someone’s sweater — with one Redditor sharing an acorn-shaped wasp nest on their sweater four years ago.

Wasp nest on my sweatshirt looks like an acorn
by u/nollan88 in mildlyinteresting

Ermolova said her sweater is just fine after being washed. She now knows to keep an eye out for wasps that appear to be on a mission.

“If the wasps are very determined in their destination inside the apartment, maybe this could be a red flag.”