Last week NTV’s Real Time News aired a wonderfully sensational investigative report on something we should all be terrified of: GIANT KILLER HORNETS. Here’s the dramatic intro to their piece:

You might scoff at these insects, but they really can do damage to human beings. An expert told the program that in rare cases, stings from giant hornets have been known to kill elderly people (about 70 Japanese people die from giant hornet attacks each year). Even if you aren’t physically weakened by old age, a sting from one of these bastards is going to hurt like hell. A Japanese entomolgist once described the sensation of being stung by giant hornet as “like a hot nail being driven into my leg.”

If the hornets can do such harm to humans, other insects don’t even stand a chance. Just look at what happens to an unforunate praying mantis that tries to eat a hornet:

You’ll also notice that the giant hornet has fantastic vision and speed, allowing it to catch and kill bees in flight. The only defense Japanese honeybees have against these monsters is a tactic that involves luring giant hornet scouts into their hive and surrounding them with massive force. A mob of about 500 honeybees is usually enough to completely cover and kill a single giant hornet.

But what about you and I, who don’t have massive mobs of honeybees to protect us? You could try using insect spray sold at stores, as this demonstration shows:

The spray used in the video is a kind made for dealing with household pest insects such flies, and it works pretty well for that, killing flies within 20 seconds. However, when used against giant hornets, the poison in the spray takes over 20 minutes to do its job! The news report recommends that you buy special extra strength insecticide sprays to take out hornets.

Slicing hornets in half can also be an ineffective method of killing them. Real Time News checked to see how long it would take for a hornet to die in such a situation:

The result: over 5 hours for it to die, and even after that, it’s stinger automatically came out when put in contact with a piece of meat! Don’t go touching any dead hornets, folks!



The report also followed around some hornet “busters” as they saved citizens from menacing hornet invaders. Here are two of the situations:

Case 1 (Hornet hive on the veranda)

Case 2 (Hornets INSIDE THE HOUSE)

They also revealed that giant hornets like to build hives in Tokyo’s parks, where they have easy access to delicious food that people throw away. Better watch your back the next time you’re having a picnic!