Comments on: Elderly exterminator vs. giant Japanese hornets

By: Andrea Digney

Andrea Digney — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:29:00 +0000

you don’t need to worry about wasp poisoning, you need to worry about testosterone poisoning *rollseyes*

By: Haf

Haf — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:18:17 +0000

Wow, that’s indeed quite a big nest they removed there.

Funny, in Germany hornets are under wildlife protection, along with wasps, but in Japan they suck them into vacuum cleaners. Maybe they could send them to Germany afterwards? Would make the treehuggers quite happy. ^^

By: Sen

Sen — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:40:59 +0000

“Once in my office I caught on these Japanese giant hornets, Vespa mandarinia, and let it sting me”

…

why the hell would you do that? feels a lot more like a fail in intelligence than a win in masculinity.

By: Geckomayhem

Geckomayhem — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:41:03 +0000

That’s one tough ojiisan. What’s scarier; suzumebachi or kumabachi? I’ve seen both in my office during summer. I was afraid of piddly wee wasps back home. Insects in Japan scare the crap out of me.

By: helical

helical — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:37:58 +0000

Well aren’t you the manly guy in your office.
All the sissy Japanese men must be in awe of your gaijin masculinity!

But you must not be aware of the aggregation pheromones in the sting venom which tends to attract other hornets in the area to come swarm you and sting the hell out of you as well.
One hornet may not be much of a threat, but as the article you linked points out, the venom in large doses is more toxic than other species of bees and can be lethal even to people without allergic reactions.

Personally, that’s enough to freak me out.

By: Taro 3Yen

Taro 3Yen — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:29:19 +0000

These giant hornets, called ‘Suzume Bachi’ (sparrow bee) are only a problem for children and whimpy, over-sensitive Japanese.

Most Japanese people have the odd idea that warps and hornets are as lethal as cobras. Sure few rare people can have near-death allergic reaction to stings, but for most people a hornet sting is a very minor nuisance. In my Japanese office, only a gaijin would ever “brave” swatting one of these wasps. Even the salarymen would scream like schoolgirls at the sight a hornet. Weird.

Once in my office I caught on these Japanese giant hornets, Vespa mandarinia, and let it sting me much to horror of the OLs who claimed it would kill me. The string was EXACTLY what I expected—It was about 2-3 times stronger than a regular wasp sting (since it was 2-3 times larger than a regular wasp sting). In other words, it was no big deal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1025_021025_GiantHornets_2.html

By: helical

helical — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:47:32 +0000

Yeah! All the wussie kids need to go out and EAT the wasps!

By: Marcello

Marcello — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:32:45 +0000

Young Japanese herbivore men could learn a thing or two from this old dude.

By: Blue Shoe

Blue Shoe — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:02:04 +0000

Wow…that guy is my hero.