Deadly wasps descend upon northern China

Spero News ^ | 10/3/2013 | MARTIN BARILLAS

[markomalley]

An incident reminiscent of Biblical plagues descended on a village in northern China. It was there that swarms of huge and deadly hornets have killed more than 40 people and injured 1,600 more. Currently, 37 patients are in critical or guarded condition in hospitals in Shaanxi province. Photographs show that victims suffered wounds resembling the impacts of bullets that left deep, dark craters on their unprotected skin. A victim told local media “the more you run, the more they want to chase you.” Some victims were chased for more than 650 feet by the swarms.

 

The sting of the hornet has been compared to a hot nail being driven into the body.

 

Experts believe that swarms of Asian giant hornets ‘Vespa mandarinia’ are responsible for the attack. They are each four times the size of an ordinary honey bee: approximately 2 inches long and sporting a quarter-inch long stinger.  Local firefighters are seeking to destroy the nests of the nettlesome hornets. The government has also sent a special medical team and personnel to treat the victims. The provincial government said hornets are most aggressive when they mate and migrate in September and October. Recent dry and warm weather this year has contributed to the ferocity of attacks.

 

The head of the Vespa mandarinia is orange in color and is wider in comparison to those of other hornets. It is quite predatory, hunting medium- to large-sized insects, such as bees, other hornet species, and mantises. Attacks are difficult to prevent because their nests are usually in hidden sites.

 

One victim has spent two months in hospital undergoing 13 dialysis treatments. She now has 200 stitches and still cannot move her legs. Recounting her attack, she said “The hornets were horrifying.”

 

“They hit right at my head and covered my legs. All of a sudden I was stung and I couldn't move. Even now, my legs are covered with sting holes.”

An expert in Japan said that he understood that most of the deaths were due to allergic reactions. He said that he venom of an Asian giant hornet is very special compared with other hornets or yellow jackets, since its neurotoxin is especially harmful to humans and other mammals. 

 

Asian hornets have naturalized in France, devastating the honey bee population there. It is currently found in 39 of Franc’s 100 administrative departments. Honey production has crashed in France. The hornets are able to destroy 30,000 bees in a couple of hours, picking them off as they leave the hive until the colony is so exhausted that the hornets can move in and ransack it. Working in swarms, the hornets hover in front of a beehive, picking off single honeybees, decapitating them and stripping off their wings and legs before making off with the “meat ball” to feed their young. Beekeepers in Great Britain are worried that should the hornets jump the English Channel, their own bees will be at stake. They are already contending with another Asian invader – the varroa mite – that feeds on bees and makes their hives susceptible to disease.  In Chinese, the hornets are called 'hu feng.'

[markomalley]

video at link.

[Wurlitzer]

I am a WASP and I never invaded China!

[The Working Man]

It’s weird... But sometimes reports like these make me really wonder about the rewards vs. risks of globalization.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

A WASP is not a HORNET. Somebody wake up the headline writer.

A wasp’s stinger will come off and stay in the victim while a hornet’s stinger does not.

Believe me, I know. When I was a kid at camp, I stepped on a hidden black wasp nest in the ground and got stung at least 7-8 times and boy did they hurt. Their stinger keep plunging into you until you kill them or get away.

Also, hornets are much nastier than a wasp, sort of like a mad Obama. Michele or Eric Holder.

[EEGator]

[Fantasywriter]

Off topic, but only somewhat. I found a small wasp nest near my koi pond. One of them stung me. I really want them all to die, but I can’t use pesticides in the vicinity of the koi. Is there any safe way to kill these pests w’out jeopardizing the [valuable] fish?

[RightGeek]

Get or make a wasp trap (google it). Uses sugar water or other organic materials as bait.

[sten]

oh hell no

I’d mobilize the army and eradicate them completely without hesitation

[Fantasywriter]

Okay, I just read all about it. Sounds pretty ingenious. I’ll give it a try; thanks.

[GladesGuru]

Consider burning it at night when they are in the nest.

A propane driveway thawing torch works quite nicely.

Do asses the fire risks and prepare accordingly, however.

[GladesGuru]

Consider burning it at night when they are in the nest.

A propane driveway thawing torch works quite nicely.

Do asses the fire risks and prepare accordingly, however.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Use smoke to drive them out or immobilize them, but you must kill them to prevent them from attacking again.

If they are in a large tree nest, you can tie a plastic bag round them and spray a poison in it. That way you can keep the nest for school children to see.

There are some anti-Wasp sprays on the market. Check with your local govt Insect Control officer or equivalent. Also, universities have this information in their Biology Departments.

[Fantasywriter]

It’s attached to the lower side of a branch of blue spruce. There are some dry needles nearby. I’m going to try to the wasp trap first. Hopefully that will work, & I won’t have to run the risk of a fire. I appreciate the input, however. Believe me, my first thought, after I applied baking soda to the sting, was to incinerate those...insects, if at all possible.

[GJones2]

You had me wondering about that. Bees I know have stingers that routinely break off, but I’d assumed that wasps ordinarily kept theirs. Apparently that’s the case.

I checked several net sites, and none said that wasps leave their stingers, not routinely (if you swap at them, which many persons do, that can break them off). Also it’s true that [all] wasps are not hornets. Hornets, though, are a subgroup of wasps (eusocial wasps, according to Wikipedia), so the headline isn’t incorrect, just not as specific as it could be.

[Fantasywriter]

Thanks for the suggestion. Anti-wasp sprays wd be a good option except that I can’t risk anything like that near the koi. One thing you learn if you keep fish: flying insect sprays are deadly (to the fish).

[Fantasywriter]

I once search-engined the question: do wasps die if they sting you?

The answer I liked best was, ‘They do if they sting me.’ That had me lol.

Apart from revenge killing [by the party that was stung], however, wasps can sting as often as they like & suffer no ill consequences. It’s part of what makes them such a nuisance.

[RetiredTexasVet]

Could take an axe or sledge hammer to the nest ... but you want to be real quick.

[GJones2]

> The answer I liked best was, ‘They do if they sting me.’

:-)

Glad you passed that on.

[Fantasywriter]

Having just been stung (earlier today) I’m wary of giving them a second chance. I appreciate the idea though—I like your style.

[GJones2]

My answer is just a longer version of the one by RetiredTexasVet. There are safer (usually more involved) methods. The one I’ve used, though, is to wait until no wasps are flying in the vicinity, hit the nest hard with something, and then run like hell.

I wouldn’t try that with a hornet’s nest, and as far as I know, I’m not especially allergic to stings. I’ve done that several times in my life, though, and never been stung yet (not by doing that — I’ve occasionally annoyed a wasp by accident and been stung).

Later — much later, maybe the next day — I come back and find the nest. If it’s lying on the ground, I take a shovel or something like that and smash the nest flat with a single blow (again making sure that there are no wasps flying in the vicinity at the time). Individuals flying elsewhere are not a problem. It’s the nest that’s in a bad place that you need to destroy. The world is full of wasps, most of them not a problem, and some even beneficial. It’s nests that are in inconvenient places that are the problem (and giant hornets in China).