From a highly intelligent primate to a six-legged avian ninja–
NARRATOR: What would be the worst way to die? Number three, the Asian giant hornet, also known as the Japanese hornet, and recently dubbed the murder hornet. Oh, I mean, of all the death-by-animal scenarios, I think being stung by murder hornets is at the top. And they do kill about 50 people a year in Japan, on average. To be attacked by a swarm of Japanese hornets, I couldn’t imagine the pain.
NARRATOR: One Japanese couple didn’t have to imagine it. On a warm morning in September, Teru and Kouichi were gardening when they disturbed a giant hornet nest. Within seconds, Kouichi had a dozen massive insects attacking him, each stinging repeatedly. Teru was stunned, too, as she ran for help.
TERU: [non-english speech
] INTERPRETER: My symptoms came quickly. My throat tightened up and I couldn’t speak. [shrieking] NARRATOR: Her husband was completely engulfed by the hornets and stung all over his face and neck. He blacked out, and the venom started to break down the tissues on his face. He died within 15 minutes. These things can grow to around 2 inches. That’s about this big. Imagine something like this, an avian ninja, flying around with a sword on its backside coming after you. That is the stuff of nightmares.
NARRATOR: In one year, 30 to 50 people in Asia die from these hornets. In the US, 60 to 80 people die from allergic reactions to various wasps and bees. But somehow, these giant hornets still scare us more.
MICHELLE OAKLEY: When you get stung by a Japanese hornet, that’s a heck of a lot of venom that’s being injected, and your body can go into full anaphylaxis. And what happens is your blood pressure drops, your throat can swell, it can be hard to breathe, and you can go into a full cardiac arrest.
NARRATOR: But the hornets aren’t after us. They want bees for dinner, and these insect predators are not staying in Asia. So this may sound like something out of a Hollywood horror movie. We wish it was. But murder hornets are a real thing. And for the first time, they’ve been spotted here in the US.
MICHELLE OAKLEY: Unfortunately, Japanese hornets were recently released into Washington state and British Columbia. And that is a very high risk, not only to the European honeybee that they like to attack, but also to people who might happen upon a Japanese hornet’s nest. So the hornets will actually decapitate the honeybees and fly back to their nest with the bodies. Why? So that they can feed their babies. Beekeepers reporting piles of dead bees? I mean, what’s happening here?
NEWS GUEST: This Asian giant hornet that has a mandible that can just rip the head off of a honeybee and go through dozens of them in seconds. They feed the thorax to their offspring, and then can take over that hive. Honeybees are pollinators, and to have an invasive species like this come along at this time, when they are reeling from colony collapse, is really troubling. They describe the sting like being poked with a red hot thumbtack through your flesh. It can sting through a beekeeper suit.
MICHELLE OAKLEY: Honeybees have had a tough go for a while, with their varroa mites, with fungal infections, and now murder hornets are coming to get them? These guys can’t get a break. NARRATOR: And worst case scenario?
MICHELLE OAKLEY: If I had a swarm of Japanese hornets coming at me, I think I’d, like, drop and roll. I think I’d really be trying to completely cover myself so that they couldn’t get me. You know, if there was a lake nearby, I’d be in it. Death by swarm of murder hornets? Not the way I want to go.
