大スズメバチ (oosuzumebachi)
Perhaps the most terrifying (and statistically the most lethal) insect here is the Japanese Giant Hornet.
This enormous bee (sometimes more than 4cm long) likes to hang around the pre-school where my better half works part time, and my car when it's parked at home.
It's a complete badass.
It eats other insects, including regular bees. In fact, it loves bees. One hornet can kill 40 bees in one minute. 30 hornets could wipe out a 30,000-bee hive in 3 hours, leaving behind all the legs and heads and then eating all the honey. Imagine coming home to that.
Don't believe me? Here they are actually doing it.
About 40 genuine human people a year are murdered by this insect.
Stings are incredibly painful and require immediate attention.
Also, it can fly at 25 mph.
...
However, it's a nice guy really. Unless you piss it off it will mind it's own business. And, uh, yeah... you can eat them (in fact, the liquid that adult hornets excrete in order to feed their young, termed "vespa amino acid mixture" or "VAAM," is the distinguishing ingredient of the sports drink of the same name.)
If you happen to come across a nest of these things, call city hall. They'll teach them a lesson.
More
Something incredible I found out when researching this insect is the way bees have worked out to defend themselves. A regular bee and his thousands of friends will surround a lone hornet and beat their wings like crazy, generating heat. Because bees can survive up to about 48 degrees C and hornets only 44 or so, the degrees generated by all those buzzing wings will kill the vicious bastard dead. Amazing.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more amazing information.
No comments:
Post a Comment