Unsuspecting couple slept entire night with wasp nest under pillow

Unsuspecting couple slept entire night with wasp nest under pillow

Last updated at 12:24pm on 14th September 2007 Comments (1)

A couple slept an entire night with a wasp's nest under their pillow - and escaped with just one sting between them.

Vicki Hames, 57, and her husband Clive, 60, had snuggled down for the night in 85-year-old stepdad Bill Houlbrook's spare room.

The couple heard a low buzzing sound before they went to sleep but were unsure where it was coming from and they were so tired after their family get together that they decided to ignore it.

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The wasp nest stretched from the pillow all the way down the back of the bed

"Clive was tired and told me the wasp could stay there for the night and to go to sleep," said health visitor Vicki.

But in the middle of the night Vicki got up to go to the toilet and discovered a dead wasp in the bed on her return. Another was flying around the lamp.

Vicki added: "I thought it was odd that there were two and I might have been sleeping on the dead one. But I swatted the wasp with my hairbrush, put them both in the bin and went back to sleep."

In the morning when Vicki and Clive got up, she could still hear the buzzing, so she followed the sound and searched the room.

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Lucky escape: Vicki Hames, husband Clive and daughter Jenny

Tracing the hum to the bed, Vicki pulled back the pillow and was horrified when an angry swarm of wasps flew out and filled the room. Vicki and Clive quickly ran out of the bedroom and slammed the door behind them.

The tissue like nest stretched from underneath the pillow all the way down the back of the bed. The wasps must have got in through the window and because the room was seldom used, had plenty of time to make their nest undisturbed.

Amazingly, Vicki was only stung once on the back when she woke up and Clive, who runs a car dealership, was completely unharmed. Vicki went on: "I am slightly allergic to wasp stings and I have a wasp sting antidote in the house to reduce the swelling.

"It was really scary. We could have put our hands under the pillow and disturbed them during our sleep, then we would not have got out so quickly."

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Bill Houlbrook: Had asked his cleaner to check the room before his family came to stay

But Vicki's step-dad Bill wasn't scared and bravely walked into the room, sprayed the wasps with insect spray and vaccumed up the nest.

He later said the room had not been used for six months. He had told a cleaner to check it over before his family came to stay but she had not done so.

Along with their daughter Jenny, 23, the couple, from Northampton, had travelled to Mr Houlbrook's home in Hereford, on their six-monthly visit.

Vicki added: "Bill didn't want to call pest control and just dealt with it himself. The only thing Bill was worried about was that we wouldn't want to visit him anymore, but we definitely will."