A nurse who has been terrified of wasps since childhood has finally overcome his fear – by becoming an exterminator.
Bret Davis, 32, had to confront his fears head-on after discovering his home was infested with both hornet and wasps nests last summer.
He bought a protective suit but discovered he actually enjoyed getting rid of the pests and now does it for fun.
Bret from Christiana, Pennsylvania, suffered from spheksophobia – fear of wasps – after being stung by one as a toddler.
He said: ‘Ever since then I’ve had this great fear of running into a nest. It’s one of those things – you’d hear buzzing next to your ear I would start swatting thinking it was a wasp.
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‘Having done the removals now, I’m very aware that so long as I’m not around their nest they’re not going to bother me.
‘It’s actually given me a bit of courage as far as wasps are concerned. It’s a relief to get over it.
‘I really enjoy doing it. It’s one of those things where you can enjoy doing it and get money for it.’
The father-of-one admits that some animal lovers claim footage of him slaying thousands of wasps at a time is ‘horrible’.
But he is adamant that it is only done because the nests are in unsafe places.
He added that friends and neighbours regularly ask him for help with their unwanted guests.
Bret said: ‘I was asked by a nurse friend of mine if I would come and take a look at some hornets at her property. They were really unnerving and aggressive – they poured out of that nest.
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‘I just dug my heels in and hoped I didn’t get stung or get venom sprayed in my eye. It worked out well. It went really smooth. You’ve just got to stay calm.
‘Getting really close to the nest does bring up a little bit of anxiety. I think it’s everybody’s fear of stumbling across something with that much activity that can really cause you a lot of discomfort and terror.’
But despite admitting he enjoys his new found ‘hobby’, Bret insists that his work allows him to educate others.
‘It’s just neat to broaden people’s minds that these aren’t just vicious, terrifying creatures,’ he said.
‘Their existence is just as important as a lot of things we value in our ecosystems.’
He also claims his way of removing the wasps is superior to his competitors, as he opts to take out the entire nest and put them in a rubber bin.
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‘Other exterminators spray an insecticide which kills them but then they’re stuck in your house and they rot in there,’ he said.
‘They smell like a dead animal.’
‘So I pull them out and put the nest in the rubber-made bin. By the time I get home it’s just sludgy water with rotten carcasses in it.
‘I dump the water out and the wasps themselves on a compost pile.’
Once the carcasses are on the compost pile, Bret leaves them out for other animals to consume.
He added: ‘My chickens will peck all the larvae out of the nests and eat them. After that, I just leave it outside overnight and by the next morning the nests are gone.
‘The local possums and skunks will eat them. They drag the nests away. So nothing goes to waste really. It’s the circle of life.’
