wasp takes down dragonfly
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Japan has some nasty insects. The worst, possibly, is a type of predatory hornet. I met one.
We were at a curry picnic for Kenny's daycare when suddenly a little bundle of insectoid legs and wings dropped among us and writhed on the ground. When the scrambling, mad ball paused, it was apparent that it was a giant Japanese hornet and a dragonfly, twined about each other.
Then the ball lifted off the ground, and it was obvious that the hornet was doing the lifting despite being tangled up with the larger dragonfly. The thing made away with its prey to the astonishment of all of us around.
I later noticed some more of the hornets hanging about the monkey bars and around a couple of trees, but didn't think too much about it. Until today when I looked the things up on the Internet. In short, there's no way that we should have been so blasé about these hornets mixing with our children.
This video shows what they can do.
The video doesn't describe what happens if these hornets should attack a human in numbers. The short summary is, necrotized (dead) tissue, organ failure and even death. People die of stings from these hornets every year. Some quotes from the Wikipedia page.
"Each year in Japan, human death toll by the Asian giant hornet exceeds that of all other venomous and non-venomous wild animals, including wild bears and poisonous snakes."
"The venom contains at least eight distinct chemicals, some of which damage tissue, some of which cause pain, and at least one which has an odor that attracts more hornets to the victim."
"Masato Ono, an entomologist at Tamagawa University near Tokyo, described the sensation as feeling 'like a hot nail being driven into his leg'."
They can fly 100 kilometres in a day and travel at 40kph. Horrible, really. But I'll leave the final word to the Wikipedia page.
"The giant Asian hornet has no natural predators. No insect in the hornet's area has the capacity to be a threat to the hornet. The only danger that the hornet faces comes from humans. Some villages in Japan value these creatures as part of a human diet. They are eaten either as hornet sashimi or deep fried. Despite the risks associated with the capture of hornets, they are said to be delicious and a good source of protein."
Amazing.