Not everyone will believe that small creatures such as Japanese hornets can kill an adult with just one bite. However, reality is cruel. The sting of this insect kills about forty Japanese people a year, no other animal in a distant eastern country can kill as much as the Japanese huge hornet.
Appearance
You can call this subspecies of a hornet small only if you compare it with other creatures that pose a threat to human life. In fact, this insect is the largest among other representatives of the wasp family, and the whole species of hornets. The dimensions of his body reach 4-5 centimeters, some individuals reach five or more cm. The wingspan of his wings during flight exceeds 6.5 centimeters. More of this insect from the wasp family is only a huge Asian hornet, but it does not pose a danger to humans.
If you look at the appearance of the Japanese hornet, you will notice its similarity to a regular wasp. Sometimes they look so identical that they can be distinguished only by the size of the body. However, there are several significant differences between these two species: a wasp has a head relative to a larger body, and there are also three additional eyes. According to other signs, it was hard not to notice that a wasp and a Japanese hornet belong to the same family: the striped pattern and yellow wings speak for themselves.
Where do the Japanese hornets live?
This type of hornet is tied to a certain type of terrain; it lives exclusively in forests and mountains, and only on a few islands of the Land of the Rising Sun. To place nests, they choose well-protected places: they prefer tree hollows or the highest branches. The Japanese hornet's nest is very easy to distinguish from that built by wasps: the former is painted gray, the latter has a bright brown hue. Resting in Japan, the tourist should carefully look around, and having noticed a gray hive, immediately move away from it.
Why are Japanese hornets dangerous?
The main and main weapon of this type of hornets is a huge sharp sting, reaching a length of six millimeters. Having resorted to his help, the insect introduces a highly toxic poison into the victim’s body, which has a nerve-paralytic effect. The poison infects the nervous system of a stung, provokes damage, and after a short time and tissue destruction. Sometimes it causes anaphylactic shock, with the onset of which the victim dies of suffocation. In some cases, one sting is enough for an adult to die.
However, the Japanese hornet itself is not aggressive in nature, it attacks humans, as well as other mammals, solely for the purpose of protecting the nest, or if it feels a threat to its own life. A simple conclusion follows from this: almost all deaths from a hornet bite occur because a person himself provoked an insect.
Hornets do not attack a person for no reason, but if the latter forces the insect to resort to extreme measures, it will be very difficult to escape from it. The Hornet continues to pursue the victim for five kilometers, and its flight speed is 40 km / h.
