Thumb-Sized Hornets Are Getting More Aggressive — And Fatal — As China Warms
CREDIT: Flickr/Thomas H Brown
By Ryan Koronowski September 28, 2013 at 9:25 am
Over the last few weeks, giant, deadly hornets have killed more than two dozen people in China, the result of bizarre weather patterns there that have allowed the bugs to proliferate.
A sting from the hornet’s quarter-inch-long stinger feels like a “hot nail through my leg,” according [ http://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/tag/vespa-mandarinia/ ] to an entomologist who got too close for comfort. The venom contains an enzyme that can dissolve human tissue, and too much of it can also bring renal failure or death.
The average winter temperature in Ankang rose 1.10 degrees C in the span of a few years alone, allowing more hornets to survive the winter. And it’s not just China; rising temperatures are behind the spread of another deadly Chinese hornets species, vespa velutina, in South Korea and Europe.
The hornets are not just a danger to humans — their primary prey is honeybees. Thirty hornets [ http://www.vespa-crabro.de/vespa-mandarinia.htm ] can easily take out a 30,000-strong bee colony in a few hours.