Viraldice: Can You Identify the Absolutely Horrifying Thing Growing in This Family’s Water Meter?

2017 is coming to a close and it's time to reflect over the last year. The high highs, the low lows, and all those crazy things in between.

Like the time the internet rallied together and helped a family identify the horrifying thing growing in their water meter. Remember that? Or have you desperately been trying to erase the image of it from your brain?

Either way, it was pretty epic, and we're all about revisiting the insanity.

When Imgur user Robbie1249 of Brisbane, Australia posted a photo of something growing in his parent's water meter, he was looking for answers.

Seriously, can you look at this without feeling sick? And yet we can’t look away! It’s so horribly fascinating and looks alive!

But Robbie1249 needed answers!

So, naturally he reached out to the Internet for help.

“Imgur, can you help? My parent’s opened their water meter box for the first time in ages, and found this inside. We have no idea what it is. The box is probably 20x40cm. There were flies buzzing around but no other animals we can see. Kinda afraid to remove it until we know what it is,” he captioned the horrifying image.

Good lord that picture is something else.

There were plenty of joke responses to Robbie1249’s post, which is to be expected from anything on the internet.

One person commented, “That’s the Flood”; another warned, “If you touch it, you’ll probably get an arm like that guy in District 9.”

Yep. Everyone’s got jokes!

Real funny, people! Luckily, Robbie1249 found out exactly what the mess was.

Turns out, it’s a common member of Australian wildlife and they’re known as Tetragonula. 

Robbie1249 posted, “OMG you did it! Thank you Omnirock, TexasRaised, and others… looks like it’s Tetragonula (a kind of stingless bee, that I’d never heard of until now).”

Ummm, yay? We guess?

Well hallelujah, because it’s actually harmless and it’s not an alien that’s about to cause havoc all over Australia. Although, that would be kind of awesome.

So what exactly are these little buggers?