Bees Vs. Hornets In Japan
Posted by Ross Rosenberg
The Asian giant hornet is the worlds largest hornet, reaching lengths of up to 2.2 inches. Their venom is acidic, and contains mandaratoxin which, in sufficient doses, can cause death in humans, even those without allergies. Asian giant hornets are responsible for about seventy deaths a year. The venom also contains a pheromone that attracts other hornets, allowing them to predate in groups.
It is this which helps them to overcome European honey bee hives. Thirty hornets can massacre thirty-thousand European honey bees, which they behead or bisect with their powerful jaws, and whose stingers cannot penetrate the hornet’s thick exoskeleton. They then consume the bees’s honey and take the bees’s larvae back with them, to feed their young.
The native Japanese honey bee, however, has figured out a way to fight back. When the initial hornet scout approaches the hive they lure it inside. Once inside, they swarm the hornet en masse, covering it entirely and keeping it from moving. They then begin to vibrate their flight muscles. This has the effect of raising the temperature of the honey bee mass to 47 °C (117 °F). The honey bees can just tolerate this temperature, but the hornets cannot survive more than 45 °C (113 °F), and are effectively roasted alive.
Categories: War, Giant Hornets, Bees, Nature, Insects, Japan
Posted at 5:16 pm on January 18, 2008
16 Comments -
Holy shit. That’s… that’s just wonderful.
Comment by Damien — January 18, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
Beautiful. Thank you.
Comment by someone — January 18, 2008 @ 6:10 pm
Oh I can do you one better, behold Japanese Bug Fights!
http://www.japanesebugfights.com/
Comment by SM — January 18, 2008 @ 8:19 pm
Ahh, yes, this bit of awesomeness. When the NatGeo Channel showed it a few years back, I immediately searched form the next showing and TiVo’d it for digital capture.
It’s rather like Conan and his closest barbarian friends clear-cutting an army of six-year-olds… “Ach, vot time it is? I am pooped! My axe, I cannot lift!”
Comment by Ygolonac — January 18, 2008 @ 8:38 pm
You know, I hate bees, but dang if that isn’t an awesome survival mechanism. More things in nature should roast their foes alive.
Comment by CJ — January 19, 2008 @ 2:36 am
That’s pretty fucking epic. Honey bees don’t bother me, but those huge wasps would. I’m glad they can fucking kill them.
Oh, am I the only person who thought “‘Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly’” when the Japanese bees lured that big motherfucker in? I hope not.
Comment by Oni — January 19, 2008 @ 2:42 am
I’ve had a video of the European honeybee massacre on my hard drive for a while now, but I’d never seen the intro nor the Japanese honeybee payback. Very cool, thanks!
Comment by Exor — January 19, 2008 @ 10:34 am
Wow. I really hate all bugs and insects, but I have to give the Japanese Honeybees credit for their ingenuity.
Comment by sean grimm — January 19, 2008 @ 11:41 am
Angry, venomous hornets with acid for blood? And they’re the size of my thumb? Awesome. Can I please have a ticket to rural Japan right now?
Comment by stegad — January 19, 2008 @ 1:34 pm
Finally once and for all disproving evolution. Look at your average human, with skin easily penetrable by the stinger of an average honeybee. Without protection it may not even be able to 1000 bees, yet this creature so much smaller than us can. Because it was engineered as a perfect bee killing weapon. Its armor just thick enough to provide complete beeproofing, its blood toxic to bees, its larvae requiring young bee hives to be fed. Its too specific to possibly be coincidental.
Comment by Hlaode — January 19, 2008 @ 2:58 pm
Yucky!
Nature Sucks!
Comment by Sharky — January 20, 2008 @ 8:21 am
praise cthulhu!
Comment by Paul — January 21, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
yes.
Comment by groonk — January 21, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
[…] the Japanese Giant Hornet is certainly a horrifying affirmation of nature’s twisted, murderous intent it’s also a […]
Pingback by ECTOPLASMOSIS! » Thrill Seeking Teamongers Rejoice: Giant Hornet Honey For Your Cup — March 27, 2008 @ 3:57 pm
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Pingback by Beepocalypse Now « Le Robo-Daggit McSmurf Jawn Blog — March 31, 2008 @ 3:33 pm
I’m sorry but if you think these are big…pleeeaase!! i live in upstate NY…yes NY!! There is a yellow jacket hive outside my house, and let me tell you what!! the bee that scare the crap outta me today was at least twice the size and width of these Japanese hornets!!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD!!???? COULD IT HAVE BEEN A QUEEN????
Comment by Jaime humphrey — July 1, 2008 @ 6:31 pm