Two Asian Giant Hornets or Japanese Giant Hornets transfer food — trophallaxis in a Wikipedia file photo. The Japanese Giant Hornet is the largest hornet in the world and is native to tropical Eastern Asia, and is the most lethal animal in Japan. The picture matches exactly a lone insect that was flying in Arlington Heights on Sunday, July 29, 2012 west of St. Viator High School.
UPDATE: Since many people have sent us comments and e-mails regarding Asian Giant Hornets, we’ve created a Facebook page to help track sightings, and report experiences with Asian Giant Hornets or other bees, wasps, and hornets. If you’re interested, please LIKE Facebook.com/AsianGiantHornet.
Wasps, hornets and bees are in the news this summer. Last week bees swarmed Des Plaines Fire Department firefighter/paramedics as they rescued a man with an ankle injury about 5:54 p.m. on July 25, 2012. The firefighter/paramedics and their patient were stung by the bees as the victim was rescued up an embankment near Golf Road and River Road.
Arlington Heights Park District has alerted park goers to be alert for Cicada Killer Wasps, especially in sandboxes. They are black with splashes of yellow and can grow to up to almost two inches. Females have a stinger, but are not aggressive unless disturbed. Males have aggressive territorial behavior, but do not have a stinger.
Sunday, an Asian Giant Hornet or Japanese Giant Hornet (Vespa mandarinia) was spotted at a residence west of St. Viator High School. The insect was at least two inches long and as thick as a human thumb. It had a wide orange-yellow head with large eyes, and distinct yellow-orange and brownish-black bands on its body — like a bee. The Asian Giant Hornet patrolled around a house in the front yard — occasionally hovering and landing on shrubbery. The Asian Giant Hornet studied a yellow-jacket nest that was recently destroyed with Raid wasp spray on the property. Yes, the giant hornets attack Yellow Jacket nests.
A Cicada Killer Wasp with yellow splashes is darker than the Japanese Giant Hornet or Asian Giant Hornet (Wikipedia file photo).
The European Hornet queen (Vespa crabro) is about one-to-two inches long — males and workers are smaller. The body segment is half brownish-black and half yellow, but its appearance is similar to the Asian Giant Hornet.
A large European Hornet filmed in Denmark. Notice how it moves backwards, and does not attack. The camera operator was at risk of attack, however. European Hornets are more likely to walk backwards and flee from humans, compared to Asian Giant Hornets, which will attack humans.
National Geographic video showing Asian Giant Hornets in a massacre of honeybees in their hive. The giant hornets look exactly like the lone scout that was spotted in central Arlington Heights on Sunday, July 29, 2012 at about 3:00 p.m. and about 6:30 p.m. (See National Geographic Video about cameraman Alastair MacEwan that filmed the massacre)
PAYBACK: Evolutionary adapted Japanese honeybees that have learned to defend their bee hive.
The Asian Giant Hornet is a ruthless predator that kills other hornet species, yellow jackets, bees, large insects and mantises. The Asian Giant Hornet often scouts out honey bee hives and marks the hive with a pheromone. The Asian Giant Hornet is known to return with about 30 more Asian Giant Hornet to attack the hive. A video by National Geographic has captured such an attack. About 30 hornets are known to kill about 30,000 bees in their bee hive in about three hours. The goal of the Asian Giant Hornet is to attack the larvae of the bees, which are used as feed for their own nests.
In Japan, the Asian Giant Hornets kill the bees by splitting them in half with their mandibles. Japanese beekeepers know that the Asian Giant Hornets usually attack after the middle of August.
The toxicity of the Asian Giant Hornet venom is actually lower than a honeybee, but the volume of venom is greater in the Asian Giant Hornet. Asian Giant Hornets are known to cause about 40 deaths per year in Japan.
A forum on DSLReports.com Need to kill Asian Hornets and comments on a BadSpiderBites.com Giant Hornet article includes reports of Asian Giant Hornets in Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. One of the pictures from a contributor from Tennessee shows a European Hornet. Last Fall posters reported aggressive infestations in recent years. In Georgia a poster reports he doesn’t go a day without seeing one of the giant hornets. One poster reports the insects flying into lights at night, and an infestation in a chimney with about 200 hornets getting inside the house. Many posters scoff at the comments that the insects aren’t aggressive. Some posters report that the large hornets are not affected by wasp/hornet spray.
I live in Richmond Virginia, & my parents live in King William Virginia. One day while visiting my folks, I was standing in their yard, talking to my mother with my arms crossed, when I heard what sounded like a rc airplane in a full on nosedive. I looked up just in time to see a humming bird sized hornet, identical to the picture of the Asian giant hornet, coming straight at me. It stung me on top of my ear & I have NEVER experienced such pain in my life, before, or since. The pain lasted for hours.
I am pierced & tattood all over, none of them hurt. This hurt. I cursed & cried like a little baby right in front of my mother. I am not allergic to bee or wasp stings, yet my entire face swelled up to extremely scary proportions. I have seen European hornets & cicada killers before. Nope, not it. Plus this thing was huge, & quite obviously, extremely aggressive, since I was doing NOTHING. Standing in the yard with my arms crossed. Not messing with a nest, not cutting grass, not doing jack. I have easily seen a dozen since that incident, & NO ONE will convince me they are not here. Yes it gets hot in VA, but NEVER over 100-105 degrees, so try again with the “It gets too hot here” B.S.. They ARE here.
In August 2009 tourists were warned to stay clear of Asian hornets that were colonizing in France. The insects are believed to have arrived in a shipment of pottery from China in 2004. One nest was discovered in 2004 and 2,000 were discovered in 2007. Nest have been reported in trees, in sewers and in the ground.
The pain of the Asian Giant Hornet is described as a hot nail piercing the skin. While the pain of a yellow jacket sting last about four minutes, the pain of an Asian Giant Hornet last about four hours with instant swelling.
Hunting Asian giant hornets underground known as ‘Tu Fong’ or Dirt Hornet. The YouTube publisher was accompanying hornet hunters collecting the insects for food and beverage purposes. The victim describes waves of pain while feeling nauseous and faint.
The previous warm Fall, warm Winter, and warm Spring have increased insect populations. Wasps and hornets have had more time to be active and to build their nests. Take extra caution looking for hornet nests and wasp nests on your property or whenever you are spending time outside. Wasps and hornets build nests in trees, in bushes, under eaves of homes, and in the ground — especially at the base of shrubs.
CLEAR SKIES? Weather Data for Monday, July 30th, 2012
SEARCH BOX PRODUCES RESULTS FOR The Cardinal -- Arlingtoncardinal.com ...(POWERFUL SEARCH for The Cardinal, which can be expanded on the results page.)
Where background Wikipedia info/photos are used, original work is modified and released under CC-BY-SA.
! MORE NEWS FAST!!! MOST RECENT: CRIMEBLOG | MOST RECENT: FIREBLOG | SUBMIT NEWS TIPS
::: Health, wellness and fitness gifts! CoolFitnessGifts.com ::: Cubs, Sox caps at ChicagoFanfare.com :::
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS BREAKING NEWS --The Cardinal -- Arlingtoncardinal.com is a breaking news blog with Arlington Heights & Chicagoland emphasis. Early breaking reports may prove to be inaccurate after follow-up investigation, which may or may not be updated in The Cardinal -- Arlingtoncardinal.com. For in-depth coverage, please also check the following links for network television, cable news networks and Chicago local media coverage ...
Daily Herald | Daily Herald -- Arlington Heights | YouTube.com/DailyHeraldClips
Today's headline videos: FOXNews Video | YouTube.com/FoxNews | Associated Press | The Cardinal
Seed Newsvine
    |
 |
 |
RSS Help ... All Headlines crimeblog | fireblog |
| « EARLIER | SEARCH ARTICLES BY DATE -- Arlingtoncardinal.com/searchdate | LATER » | |||
Interesting – just a week ago I found a dead hornet/wasp that was bigger than anything I’d ever seen at a park in Des Plaines near Golf and Mt. Prospect Rd.
Very intersting article! …. Seems like a very dangerous species that many people don’t know about. I am glad somebody wrote about this.
I noticed one of these in my back yard a few weeks ago and have been scouring the internet and polling friends trying to figure out what it was. This is it! I’m near Forest View Rec Center.
I live on the west side of Des Plaines. I have two of the Killer Cicada’s burrowing in my back yard. I took pictures of them – they definately look like the Killer Cicada’s not the Asian wasp listed above. These two are about 1 1/2 inches long but are about 1/3 inch wide. I hope they are the Cicada Killer Wasps.
These things are very aggresive and very fast! I live in Athens Il. and have killed 2 in 2 weeks. I have never seen such a large hornet in my life!
Not to be dense nor rude but “who” (with credentials-PhD in entomolgy)has made the verification that what people have seen really are the giant hornet and a case of mistaken identity?
Ive killed around 10 of them over the past 2 months. They have always been in pairs. The strange thing is, they have only been seen at night. Over the last 3 weeks, they seemed to have disappeared. I’ve heard of 4-5 other cases of them being in my area. (Central Alabama) I have never seen these hornets until this year.
We live in Chester, VA and my husband was stung by 2 of these when cutting the grass. We have seen them in our lilac bush on the west side of our house. They looked like they were eating the bark of the lilac bush or the sap underneath. How do we get rid of these things? I am afraid for my grandchildren and the neighbors children.
I live in eastern Virginia, very near Richmond but still a ways into the country. In the past, we have had wasp nests and bees nests around our yard, even hornets. My father is extremely allergic to bee stings, so much so that he has to carry an epinephrine shot with him while he works in the yard. This being said, I obviously am not unfamiliar with all manner of flying insects. Last summer, I noticed these strange, HUGE flying insects – looked like giant bees or hornets- flying around the lights near where I park my car. I work retail so sometimes I don’t get home until really late. Sometimes there would be about 30 of them. As soon as I opened my car door, they would start flying at me. I had to spend the night in my car once because I was too afraid to get out. They have large bodies, 2 inches long with yellow heads and a distinctive cluster of eyes and there are yellow stripes around it’s brown body. I have scoured the internet and compared photos with ones my dad has had to kill just so I could enter my own home. They are Japanese Giant Hornets. Everyone who keeps insisting that these are Cicada Wasps and aren’t aggressive is in serious denial or is trying to cover up for whatever MAJOR screwup took place to get these things here. It’s only gotten worse this year. I’ve had to cut my hours at work so that I don’t come home to find my home swarming and get stung. In all the reports I’ve read (and I’ve gone to an actual library to find books on these things) 2 stings is enough to kill a person. What could happen to my father? My pets? Children in my family who visit?! I am a prisoner in my own home. These things do no respond whatsoever to yard or area treatments for infestations. I don’t know what to do and everyone keeps telling us that we’re overreacting, that what we have seen isn’t what we have seen… When is someone going to start trying to do something about this?
-Trapped in Quinton, Alanna
alot here quakertown pa 20 or 25 a nightm i kill big
If you catch one let me know I am an entomologist in Arlington Heights
I live in Bristow VA and the last 2 weeks my house has had numerous visits by the giant hornet. They hang out by the porch lights at night and my fruiting Dogwood Tree during the day. Do they ever sleep?
I was bombarded by one of these wasps. It landed it my coffee cup while I was on the balcony. Right away I realized it was not a cicada killer. The cicada killer’s yellow pattern is very different
I live in Pulaski Co., Virginia. We have land against Jefferson Nat’l Forest. Thankfully I’ve yet to encounter the Japanese Hornet, but we have the European Hornets all over the place. Several years back I was hiking my land and discovered a nest of them high in a hollow tree. Least 20 ft up. Watched with my binoculars (after backing away a number of yards) and observed several would stand guard around the hole while the hornets that were going to and fro passed by. Those returning would touch antenae with those guarding.
Following year the nest was gone. Although they give me the creeps so far they are NOT aggressive as I’m reading these Japanese hornets are. That said the European Hornets ARE curious and will buzz around me. Unnerving as crap I may add.
I live in Annandale Virginia. Outside the window last summer I saw something which terrified me, I tried to take a picture of it but I couldn’t focus fast enough. What I saw was this wasp, they are in Annandale VA too. I have since moved away and don’t want to go back there for many reasons, the new wasp adds yet another one.
I live in Maryland and I just had one of these fly into my home this weekend. Where can I take it to be analyzed to confirm what it is?
In Illinois we take insects to an agricultural extension office of the University of Illinois. You might try inquiring here … http://extension.umd.edu Can you get a picture of the hornet and post it and send it as an attachment to https://www.facebook.com/AsianGiantHornet … or post it to the wall on the Facebook page?
The Japanese are of course more aware of this species than anyone in the US. Any cargo shipped to the West coast from Japan, or flown in a plane, comes from Japanese port cities, where there are no hornets. The only feasible way a real specimen could get over here is if someone in Japan intentionally brought one/some. In spite of the relative small size this wouldn’t be easy. I continue thinking that if there have been any, they’re extraordinarily rare. Away from their colony a lone hornet won’t last long. I’ve seen a 438 cell red wasp nest from East Texas that was cautiously torched at night in a deer stand. It’s known that 30 red wasp stings are fatal to a large human. Worry about what’s already here first. But, what if someone wanted revenge for Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Be also advised that reports of cicada killer stings being mild are from instances in which the wasp recently unloaded its venom sac and it was near empty when it hit the claimants. A fully charged CK can have you in pain for a week.
@Charles: The species Vespa velutina (Asian predatory wasp) is thought to have arrived in southwestern France from the Far East in a consignment of Chinese pottery in late 2004. SOURCE: Asian hornets to invade Paris on way to Britain. It is not too far fetched to consider that some species somehow made it to the United States, too.
I have seen Japanese Giant Hornets in the Chevy Chase suburbs of Washington DC on many occasions. As a child, I actually participated in the killing of one. I kept the specimen around for a couple of weeks but no one could identify it for me, including a couple science teachers I brought it to.
Since that time, I have seen many others. Typically though, I find them around twilight, near trees that are in the process of dripping sap.
I have handled two in my life and found them rather passive for a hornet species, compared to say a yellow jacket.
@Blakewood … who “handles” hornet species — yellow jackets or otherwise?
@ Cardinal News
Not many people, I’m sure, but I do and a google image search of japanese giant hornet will reveal others as well.