Thousands of Asian Giant Hornets Furiously Swarm a Man Trying to Remove Their Nest

Previously named Asian Giant Hornets, Northern Giant Hornets look as terrifying as their name suggests. A video we have for you below shows thousands of these hornets attacking a man in a biotech suit! 

The video has over 39,000 likes and thousands of comments. One person writes: “All that humming sounds like a fleet of B-52 bombers.” Another says, “I’d be putting in my two-week notice right about now.”

Beekeepers and those that deal with infestations are truly incredible. Putting yourself in danger to prevent issues within an ecosystem isn’t an easy feat. We tip our hats to these hardworking individuals. 

The Northern giant hornet’s life cycle normally starts in the springtime, when the queen wakes from her hibernation and looks for a place to establish her nest. Northern giant hornets often build their nests beneath the ground, which makes finding colonies challenging. 

Typically, hornets may dig nests in the soil, inhabit tunnels already built by other creatures like rats, or look for areas near decaying tree roots. This type of hornet is a pest! They live with one queen and numerous workers. 

They normally fly a distance of approximately a mile, but they can travel up to around five miles in search of food.

The Sting of a Northern Giant Hornet

Thankfully, the suit helps protect the individual from the stings. When their colony is threatened, they continuously sting targets, killing up to 50 people annually in Japan. This is why they are occasionally referred to as “murder hornets” by the press.

A northern giant hornet’s stinger is normally around a quarter of an inch long, making it larger and more lethal than the stingers of the majority of other stinging bugs. Their stingers are indeed sufficiently long to pierce a beekeeper’s suit. 

These insects attack in massive numbers when they feel threatened, which could result in a victim receiving a lot of stings. When a victim receives multiple stings from a northern giant hornet, the effects can be so severe that the person may experience organ failure.

These stings hurt and have neurotoxins in them. Compared to honeybees, northern giant hornet stings can be more painful to people since they can deliver up to 28 times more venom in just one sting. 

However, it would take numerous stings, which is extremely uncommon unless a person has a severe allergy to or sensitivity to stinging insects, for the problem to become potentially fatal.

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The photo featured at the top of this post is © iStock.com/kojihirano