Hello Cheryl,
That thing is HUGE!!!! I'm shocked you got so close to it. When we moved into our Condominium in Fla., they were still building the other units. I came home from work at lunchtime one day and noticed our mailbox was completely covered in BEES!

I'd never seen anything like this in my life, so I phoned my husband and he came home and we had a Queen Bee on the inside of the mailbox. The thing was literally COVERED in bees. We called the local dept. of wildlife and they had a local beekeeper who was more than thrilled to come out and get the Queen Bee out of our mailbox. He came out several hours later all clad in one of those beekeeper uniforms, and was able to identify the Queen and catch her. He was thrilled for some odd reason . As soon as the Queen was caught, the mailbox emptied out and all the remainder of the bees died off within an hour or so.

It was terribly frightening, and fascinating. The next say there was a picture of our mailbox in the local newspaper. We both got a good chuckle out of that.

Be careful and stay away from that nest. They can be awfully mean little buggers.

I hope you begin to feel better soon.

All the best,
Chris