Sure am glad the Tarantula Hawks we have here in Cali are solitary animals and not hive dwellers like they are in Asia... When I got stung by one of the above in our garden in Ione, I swear I had fire and acid poured onto my forearm... it swelled up to half the size of a softball in just a few minutes.
Ummmmm... ahhh Bra... I bet those Chins was a running their azzes off... you see the jaws on those critters... JUST DAMN... I personally know about hornet stings and bites... those muhfugahs gots ta be biting yo chit off with chompers like that. I was in Asia... I never saw one... heard of em... but I never saw one other than in pictures.
I have an allergy to stings, from small insects like mosquitos (itchy lump around the sting) to wasps (stung limb swells a bit and burns for a few days). I really, really do not ever want to be stung by one of those things. I suspect that if I did it would be very unpleasant, quite possibly to the point where I ceased to have the ability to be pleased by anything.
In case you are worried about the 20mm rounds that don't hit targets, downsize the cal to .177! Actually kind of cool!
Ohhh, not good. How long until they find their way to the US? We have cicada killer wasps here now (we didn't used to). They're almost that size, but don't kill you. They might scare you to death though.
I have only seen the bee-killing wasps (1st image in first post) in videos. But I know them to be pretty tough customers. Nobody wants them to expand their range beyond eastern Asia. The big spider-killing wasps (2nd image in first post) are already everywhere. But you'd have a hard time getting that second group to sting you. They are really goal oriented to (a) find spider (b) immobilize it with venom (c) bring it home (d) lay eggs there within. The first group not only fatally stings bees, but they use their impressive mandibles chop their opponents to bits. Bees respond with a suicidal body ball within which they raise T to at least 46 oC and cook the wasp. Killing by animals is done by many ways, but AFAIK this is the only known example of cooking. If the bee colony fails to exclude these wasps, then the wasps carry off bee larva and use them ( as above) for baby feeding. Vespa mandarina wasps have strong venom and because they are large, a lot of it. At least 41 people have died from their stings recently in China. I don't know what those people were doing prior to the attacks. I do know that no Vespa could (next generation) benefit from stinging humans. All I know is, if you encouter wasps and bees having a fight, go way. Here I have indicted the wasps, but some bees are also tough customers. In Puerto Rico I had the opportunity to destroy an 'africanized' bee colony. I was dressed (pretty well) for success but dang those puppies were totally visually keying on me and totally goal oriented. I had a couple of painful hours. Others (without adequate front-end preaparation) have died. My advice is that bees and wasps (and other arthopods) have their own private wars going on. Don't intrude unless you have a solid survival plan in place. Anyone who knows they have allergic reactions to insect venom should carry an 'epipen'. Don't shoot yourself with it unless you feel 'respiratory insufficiency'. As the ads say 'talk to your doctor'.
I 'm sure in time a few will find passage to Long Beach CA on a shipping container and colonize Los Angeles
I've always known them as Japanese giant hornets. There are Discovery, Nature, NG documentries on them in Japan.
I'm borderline allergic to insect venom and I live on 5 acres. I'll get zapped by ground hornets or red wasps once or twice a year and get to carry a tennis ball sized lump with me for a week or two. I really need to be carrying an eppy pen with me when I'm tinkering in the woods here, but haven't gotten around to getting one. If I see any sparrow-sized hornets? I'm moving to North Dakota!
If they're ever found in the SE United States......I don't care what the environmental weenies say, I'm going to use enough insecticides and/or herbicides to have FLCs (funny looking critters) for the rest of the year.
Those Chinese Wasps are freaking unbelievable and I've lived in Cali for near forty years and never even knew about those Tarantula Hawks!
I was stung by the orange-winged black bodied bastards when I was weeding our garden in the mid 60's... I guess I was messing around a nest hole where one had just stuck a spider... it felt worse worse than a velvet ant sting I got in Texas two years later... and very similar to the bullet ant sting I got in British Honduras in the mid 70's... I've never personally seen the giant asian hornet in my travels, and I have been to several countries in asia. I read that the giant asian hornet sting/japanese hornet was almost paralysing with pain.
