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A woman opened the door to her rarely-used guest room to get the shock of her life when she saw a giant WASPS' NEST on the bed.

The estimated 5,000 insects had created a whopper of a home by chewing through bedding - including a blanket and pillow.

Pest-control expert John Birkett, who was called to tackle the massive mound of stinging bugs, reckons he's never seen anything like it in more than four decades on the job.

The whopping nest covered the single bed - and went deep inside the mattress at the five-bedroom home in Winchester, Hampshire.

John said: "In 45 years I have never seen anything like it. There must have been 5,000 wasps. It was a job to deal with it. I had to put all my protective gear on.

(Image: Getty)

"At one stage there must have been 2,000 wasps buzzing around me. If someone had gone in to the room and not known what it was it would have been pretty serious."

The client lives alone in the five-bedroom house in the St Cross area of the town, and had not been in the spare room for several months, before her son opened the door and discovered the massive nest.

John, who runs Longwood Services exterminators, used chemical spray to kill the insects during a two-hour operation on Sunday afternoon, and reckons the previous biggest nest he has ever found in a bedroom was about the size of a tennis ball.

He said: "I thought 'what a shame', but I had a job to do and the client was terrified. Afterwards, the entire room was filled with dead wasps. It was like the apocalypse."