Hornets

One of the other (new) JETs whose blog I follow had a run in with the suzumebachi, or Japanese giant hornet, whose territory is pretty much Asia and rural Japan. His blog pretty much brings up all the major points about the hornets; they're really really really not good news.

Suffice it to say, they're the deadliest living non-human thing in Japan, totaling more kills than wild bears and all the other creatures (including the mukade, or Poisonous Centipede) combined. COMBINED.

There are a couple of other things I want to point out from the wiki though.

1. Outside of Japan, it's called "the yak killer hornet." My guess is that there's a reason behind that name.
2. It's the biggest hornet. IN THE WORLD.

and

1. Native Japanese honey bees are even more badass than these hornets. 

Why? Well. The hornets like to eat honey bees (they must be sweet), and can decimate a 30,000 strong hive of honey bees because their stings are too weak. The hornets will go through, and with pretty much one bite, chop off the bee's head, leaving a trail of bee heads and limbs. Holy crap.

Most of the time, the bees attempt to fight these predators that are five times their size by going at them solo. I guess even bees have heros and stuff. But this is a pretty ineffectual way to go about killing the giant hornet, cause it just doesn't work.

The native honey bees though, will form a mob and set a trap for the hornet. When the hornet gets close enough, they literally mob the hornet and kill it by frying and suffocating it. How? According to wiki, they vibrate their bodies together en mass until the giant ball of bees reaches 115 F. 115 degrees fahrenheit. They also do something to raise the amount of CO2 as well. Since honey bees can tolerate up to 120 F at that level of CO2 but the hornet can't... it's a win for the honey bees.

It's not, however, without casualties. Several bees die, but for the good of the whole colony.

Seriously, honey bees are awesome. They make honey *and* they can kill the giant hornets? Badass indeed.