Mr. Ray thinks that Alabama may see a lot of these nests this year.

“We confirmed two nests in May and have indications of a third,” he said. “This puts us several weeks earlier than in 2006 when we identified the first giant nest on June 13.”

“If we are seeing them a month sooner than we did in 2006, I am very concerned that there will be a large number of them in the state. The nests I have seen this year already have more than 10,000 workers and are expanding rapidly.”