In three months this summer, thumb-sized hornets whose venom dissolves human tissue, have killed 41 people and injured over 1600 more in Ankang, China.
While hornets infest its mountainous rural areas every year – 36 residents were stung to death between 2002 and 2005 – locals and municipal officials say this year is tantamount to an epidemic, the worst they have ever seen.
At least some of the deaths were caused by vespa mandarinia, experts say. The species does not typically attack unless it feels its nest is threatened. But when it does, it can be fierce and fast – the hornets can fly at 25 miles per hour and cover 50 miles in a day. They nest in tree stumps or underground, making nests extremely difficult to detect.
Ankang is on alert, with the local authorities posting warning notices online, on roadside tree trunks and on primary school walls. The crisis has exhausted [the mayor of Ankang] who has spent nearly every night wandering the township exterminating nests with four other cadres. He says there are 248 hornet nests in Hongshan with 175 are close to schools and roads.
Gong and his team survey nests by day; once the sun sets, they dress in homemade anti-hornet suits made of rain jackets and canvass, and burn the nests with spray-can flamethrowers. "They don't fly around at night," he says.
Let's hope that some brilliant scientists don't bring some over here to breed with local species. I assume that lesson was learned with Africanized Honey Bees... :roll:
chumley wrote:once the sun sets, they dress in homemade anti-hornet suits made of rain jackets and canvass, and burn the nests with spray-can flamethrowers.
I think a few of the local teens would gladly volunteer for this duty.
chumley wrote:once the sun sets, they dress in homemade anti-hornet suits made of rain jackets and canvass, and burn the nests with spray-can flamethrowers.
I think a few of the local teens would gladly volunteer for this duty.
I can't tell you how many of my little green army men met their fate with my sister's Aqua Net and a match.
A single hornet can kill forty European honey bees in a minute; a group of 30 hornets can destroy an entire hive containing 30,000 bees in a little more than three hours.
@big_load
Yeah and to make it worse Japan has these archaic gun laws. So last year was big time bear encounters and the solution was to wear a dinner bell around your neck. I'll take a bear over these hornets any day though.
Alston Neal wrote:
Yeah and to make it worse Japan has these archaic gun laws. So last year was big time bear encounters and the solution was to wear a dinner bell around your neck. I'll take a bear over these hornets any day though.
That's cause bears are friendly compared to these guys:
Thirty to forty people die in Japan every year after having been stung, which makes the Japanese giant hornet the most lethal animal in Japan (bears kill zero to five people and venomous snakes kill five to ten people each year).
I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies.
@azbackpackr
Targeting specifically of course ultra-conservative, anarchistic, racist false patriot tea party types who can't get over the fact that they lost the election. :tt:
I was going to suggest drones, but hey, why not killer hornets!
RWStorm wrote:@azbackpackr
Targeting specifically of course ultra-conservative, anarchistic, racist false patriot tea party types who can't get over the fact that they lost the election.
Route Editor
Route Scout
and cover 50 miles in a day. They nest in tree stumps or underground, making nests extremely difficult to detect.
