Couple discover 'monster' insect with giant spike in garden

On Saturday afternoon, Teresa Harries, 77, was out in her garden at home in Netley Abbey and was enjoying the hot weather.

Teresa was doing some DIY and covering a padded bench with some plastic material when a giant ‘wasp-like’ insect fell on to the patio next to her.

Shocked at the size of what she saw, she quickly called over her husband, Bernard, 79, who was equally surprised.

The scared grandmother told the Echo: “I have never seen anything like it – the spike it had coming out the back of it was terrifying.

The Giant Horntail (Image: NQ) “First of all we thought it was the Asian Giant Hornet – with the size of its spike we were very worried it could sting us.

“I called up loads of my family just to tell them about the horror of what we had found.”

Bernard added: “When I saw it I said 'my god, look at the size of that monster'.

“It did seem to be on its last legs – it was very slow moving and looked almost exhausted. It sort of crawled around and wanted to hide away underneath everything.

“We didn’t want it to be in any distress or cause any harm to our grandchildren – who can run around the garden barefoot.

Bernard Harries holding the Giant horntail (Image: NQ) “So, we thought 'better to be safe than sorry' and quickly and humanely got rid of it.”

It transpires that, after some gruelling research by Teresa and Bernard, that what they found appears to resemble a giant horntail.

According to the Hampshire Wildlife Trust, a giant horntail is a large sawfly that is also known as the 'giant woodwasp' or 'greater horntail wasp'.

The creature is a relative of the wasp and the female has a long, stinger-like protrusion that is actually her ovipositor, which she uses to lay her eggs into wood, particularly pine.

Despite their fearsome appearance, they do not have stingers and are harmless to humans - and are relatively common in the UK, particularly between May and August.