Asian Giant Hornets Kill 42 People In China, Injure Over 1,500 274
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Madison Park and Dayu Zhang report on CNN that swarms of aggressive hornets are inflicting a deadly toll in a central China killing 42 people and injuring 1,675 people in three cities in Shaanxi province since July. Government authorities say these attacks are from a particularly venomous species, the world's largest hornet, known as the Asian giant hornet or vespa mandarinia. The giant hornet extends about 3.5 to 3.9 centimeters in length, roughly the size of a human thumb and has an orange head with a black tooth used for burrowing. The Asian giant hornet is intensely predatory; it hunts medium- to large-sized insects, such as bees, other hornet species, and mantises. The pain of the Asian Giant Hornet is described as a hot nail piercing the skin and lasts about 4 hours with instant swelling. One victim told local media earlier this month that "the more you run, the more they want to chase you." Some victims described being chased about 200 meters (656 feet) by a swarm. Local authorities have deployed thousands of police officers and locals to destroy about 710 hives but ""It's very difficult to prevent the attacks because hornet nests are usually in hidden sites," says Shunichi Makino, director general of the Hokkaido Research Center for Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute. Makino, who specializes in entomology, warned that the sting from an Asian giant hornet was severe compared with those of other insects. "The venom of an Asian giant hornet is very special compared with other hornets or yellow jackets," says Makino. "The neurotoxin — especially to mammals including humans — it's a special brand of venom." Asian Giant Hornets have been spotted in the United States."
Damn you Fukushima! (Score:3, Funny)
I'm not ashamed to admit (Score:5, Funny)
I will openly admit, if I was attacked by those giant death machines I would move to another continent. Ain't nobody got time for that!
Oh, hornets! (Score:4, Funny)
First time I read this headline, I missed that 'hornets' was plural and imagined a single, huge hornet on a murdering rampage across China.
I saw this in a movie once. (Score:5, Funny)
What about Super Hornets (Score:4, Funny)
I'll bet the FA18D and E Super Hornets have killed more than that in Iraq and Afghanistan
The next Syfy movie plot (Score:5, Funny)
The best defense (Score:5, Funny)
To protect against hornets, carry around a vacuum cleaner. Nothing can live inside a vacuum.
Re:Oh, hornets! (Score:5, Funny)
Like that time I read about the giant butterfly terrorising Tokyo. Turned out to be an urban moth.
Re:Photo of Vespa Mandarinia (Score:4, Funny)
I was thinking more along the lines of Kentucky Fried Chicken. They look suspiciously edible from a Chinese point of view.
Bonus points if they're an aphrodisiac.
Re:shotguns! (Score:4, Funny)
I'm afraid that would be like punching holes through clouds. I would bait them with poisoned prey, which they would haul back to their difficult to find nests. Some kind of slow poison, so it makes it back to the nest. Then it would slowly kill the rest of the brood.
How about using radioactive waste . . . ? Or might that have some other unforeseen consequences . . . ?
Re:Photo of Vespa Mandarinia (Score:4, Funny)
and we wonder why they are so pissed off?
Re:I saw this in a movie once. (Score:5, Funny)
Badgers?
Badgers?!?!
We don't need no stinking badgers!!!!
Re:The best defense (Score:5, Funny)
>> carry around a vacuum
And risk pissing off Mother Nature? I hear she abhors those things.
Re:Hysteria! (Score:5, Funny)
> And you believe your *inset nation* will handle things any differently (minus the guns)?
Yes, I sincerely do. America has a massively irrational fear-button that doesn't ever seem to get desensitised, no matter how often the media and government press it. If the mainstream US media decides to pick this hornet thing up and run with it, you'll see most or all of the following:
- Mass-persecution of harmless bees, wasps, flies and anything else that might be mistaken for a killer hornet of doom. ...
- Idiots panic-buying houseloads of shit for no reason (default american reaction to any major event: Quick! Buy Shit!)
- People barricading themselves in their homes/ cars
- suffocating inside their homes/cars because by "hornet-proofing" a space they made it airtight
- accidentally poisoning themselves with insecticides in improperly-ventilated areas,
- Local governments / school boards/ uni campuses etc passing asinine hornet-related local ordinances
- shooting/ killing one another in hornet-related disputes
- Crashing their cars because they thought the bee in the car with them was a killer hornet.
- shooting at (real or imagined - but almost certainly the latter) killer-hornet nests
- Accidentally setting fire to their homes/ neighbourhoods while trying to burn/ smoke out (real or imagined) killer-hornet nests
- Attempting to shoot at (real or imagined) hornets (leading to accidental shootings of people, pets and livestock)
- deliberately killing themselves out of sheer terror (to be fair, these people tend to be genuinely mentally ill and would have found some other excuse sooner or later)
- shooting at (real or imagined) Chinese people (because obviously this whole hornet thing is their dirty commie terrorist fascist fault)
keyboard cat is going to have a hell of a job keeping up with all this.
>guns... for dealing with thousands of tiny insects....No one is that dumb.
I wasn't really suggesting that they'd buy the ammo to shoot the hornets, just that the mdeia escalates every scare-story up to the level of "imminent apocolypse" and that provokes americans to empty the supermarketrs of canned food and ammo. That said, never underestimate the dumb: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=shoot+at+wasps+with+gun
Re:Oh, hornets! (Score:1, Funny)
I suspect he will, sooner or later.
Re:I'm not ashamed to admit (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, the guy being stung knew PRECISELY how far it was, 656 feet, and he counted every step of the way. 153 feet to the lake... fuck fuck fuck 117 feet to the lake... 98 feet to the lake... fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck 45 feet to the lake fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK FUCK FUCK splash
It was the media that converted to 200m due to the international audience. I think it loses something in the SI translation.
Obig. Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
Leela: "What's the mission?"
Farnsworth: "Collecting honey. Ordinary honey."
Leela: "That doesn't sound so dangerous."
Farnsworth: "This is no ordinary honey! It's produced by vicious space bees. A single sting of their hideous neurotoxin can cause instant death!"
Hermes: "And that's if you're not allergic! You don't wanna know what happens then, oh no no, God no."
Farnsworth: "Your insides with boil out of your eye sockets like a science fair volcano!"
Hermes: "I didn't want to know!" *cries*
Oblig Monty Python (Score:3, Funny)
Ok, we build this giant wooden badger ...
Re:I saw this in a movie once. (Score:3, Funny)
And Honey Buzzard don't take no crap from anyone - Honey Buzzard does what it wants!
Re:I'm not ashamed to admit (Score:5, Funny)
So the SI unit of distance when being attacked by giant hornets is the FUCK? I thought people were just calling for help.
"Ouch! Fuck fuck fuck! They're still chasing me!?! Fuck fuck fuck!"
I didn't realize these people were just trying to conduct scientific measurements. Next time I won't call emergency services and disrupt their important work. Thanks for the tip! :)