A ginormous wasp nest was discovered by a nine-year-old Nailsworth boy while in his attic on Saturday.

DIY enthusiast Milo Gerstheimer was getting ready to renovate the attic space for his new room when he stumbled upon a 70cm-wide dormant nest.

He cut it open to find three dead wasps and has decided to turn it into a science project at Minchinhampton Primary Academy.

“I thought it was alive so I just ran back down the ladder,” said Milo, who returned shortly afterwards to show his grandparents on Facetime.

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“They thought it was going to be about as big as a tennis ball. Luckily it wasn’t active. I think it’s about two years old.

“It was behind a wall so we didn’t realize it was there,” he added.

George McGavin, BBC One Show presenter, author, and lecturer on all things creepy-crawly, said he thought the find was "very impressive."

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It wasn’t the only nest he saw while measuring the attic, and Milo has since gone off the idea of going to sleep in there.

“I’m having second thoughts about making a renovation up there because if I went through the whole attic there’s probably going to be about 100 wasps nest.

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“Just going in there I’ve seen five [nests] already in five minutes.

“I’ve seen dead ones, I’ve seen alive ones, and I don’t honestly want to have my bed up there anymore - I’ll just hear buzzing for the rest of my life.”

Milo’s discovery is one fifth of the size of the largest wasp nest ever recorded, which was found on a farm in New Zealand, 1963.

When whole, it measured 3.7 m long and approximately 5.5 m in circumference, but it was too heavy for the tree it grew in and fell, splitting in two.

Wasps build their nests using wood scrapings mashed up with saliva into a papier-mâché like substance.