Yeah! FOR REALS! I’ve read they are called “great sparrow bees” in Japan and “tiger-head bees” in China.
Honey bees in Asia are on to them and have a technique called “balling” where they swarm a scout hornet and kill it through suffocation and over-heating before it can emit a pheremone warning to other Asian hornets.
American and European honeybees, while better honey producers than Asian honeybees, aren’t as good at defending themselves from Asian hornets. Japanese honey producers would rather have American bees producing for them, but they fall prey to Asian hornets too easily.
I wonder what a matchup between Asian hornets and Africanized “killer” bees would be like?
We’re gonna need a bigger bug zapper...