Japanese hornet is a large stinging insect whose bites are not only painful, but also dangerous. The Japanese call him a bee sparrow. We learn more about the Japanese hornet and its lifestyle, what is dangerous, what to do and how to get rid of it.

Description and characterization of insect life

We will get acquainted with the appearance of the Japanese hornet, its behavior and where it can be found.

What does a Japanese huge hornet look like?

This is a subspecies of Vespa mandarinia - a species of the genus of the hornet of the family of real wasps. The length of his body exceeds 4 cm, and the wingspan is about 6 cm. The insect looks like a large wasp with a yellow head, on which are large eyes, and the body consists of dark brown and yellow stripes.

Did you know? Vespa mandarinia or the Asian giant hornet, a variety of which is the Japanese subspecies, is the largest hornet in the world, reaching a little over 5 cm.

On a larger head than wasps, there is a pair of primary eyes and three additional eyes. The sting reaches a length of 6.25 mm, straight, without nicks, reusable. When bitten, it does not remain in the skin. It has large jaws that it uses when hunting.

The lifestyle and nutrition of the Japanese giant

These are public wasps, building paper nests, consisting of pieces of wood bark, glued together with saliva. The family is led by the uterus, the only female to lay eggs. There are working individuals, females, performing all work in the hive and outside it (supply), not able to breed.

There are drones that exist to fertilize the uterus. A family in one nest can contain up to 300 members. These insects feed on nectar and sugary foods. They also hunt other insects and, due to toxic poison and powerful jaws, can have other wasps, grasshoppers, and locusts as prey.

Working bees do not eat such prey, but simply carefully chew and feed the larvae and uterus of their nest. Many of the insects they hunt are agricultural pests. Hornets cause considerable harm to honey bees. European bee breeds that do not know how to resist them are especially affected.

Did you know? Japanese bees have their own hornet protection system. When a bee sparrow enters their hive, it falls into the dense environment of working bees, which raise the temperature around it to + 47 ° C due to muscle work. Hornets withstand temperatures only up to + 45 ° C and die over time, and Japanese bees tolerate body heating up to + 50 ° C.

Habitat

The Japanese hornet is endemic to the Japanese islands, but is also found in the south of Sakhalin Island. In Eurasia, its closest relative lives - the Asian giant hornet. On the territory of the Russian Federation, it can often be found in the Primorsky Territory.

How to breed

Drones only fertilize the uterus and do not mate with other females. After mating, they die, and the uterus retains their sperm in itself. She lays eggs in cells. Females appear from fertilized eggs, and males from unfertilized eggs.

First, after about a week, larvae emerge from the oviposition, which are fed with protein feed from other insects. After a few days, they turn into pupae placed in a silk cocoon, and the cells are closed with a lid. After a couple of weeks, a new insect comes out of them.

When the uterus is aging, other young females can take on their functions. An old uterus, unable to lay eggs, is driven out and she dies. By winter, working individuals die, and fertilized females look for a wintering place. When heat arrives, the overwintered individuals establish their colony, laying eggs in independently constructed cells.

The uterus feeds the first brood itself, and then all the work, except for laying eggs, is taken by the working bees.

Did you know? The uterus controls the hornet family with the help of pheromones. Signals from the smells make the hornets get food, feed the larvae, and attack the enemies together.

Bite features

The bite of Japanese hornets is very painful. It is compared to a blow with a hot nail. This species injects highly toxic poison through a sting, which can be dangerous for allergy sufferers. Multiple bites, when members of the same family attack together, can end in death for any person. Children should especially be wary.

Toxicity to humans

Japanese hornets produce poison, which has a nerve-paralytic effect. It contains mandorotoxin, a dangerous neurotoxin. Acetylcholine is injected with it, a substance that attracts other members of the nest. Typically, multiple attacks are people who come close to the nest or kill the hornet.

Alarmed insects after a signal calling to attack can pursue the offender up to 5 km. Their poison can cause cardiac arrest and anaphylactic shock, which manifests itself in a short time. It destroys tissues and causes severe pain, can cause allergies.

First symptoms

After severe pain from stinging with a hornet, the following symptoms are observed:

• redness at the site of the bite;
• fast and extensive inflammatory process;
• hardening of tissues at the site of injury;
• edema;
• headaches and dizziness;
• labored breathing;
• cardiopalmus;
• enlarged lymph nodes;
• fever.

When bitten by a Japanese hornet, medical care should be provided immediately. Otherwise, tissue destruction at the site of the bite can damage nearby organs and cause bleeding in them.

What to do with a bite

Hornets rarely attack humans, but if their attacks could not be avoided, then the following measures should be taken as quickly as possible:

1. Apply cold to the bite site.
2. Wipe the site of the bite with hydrogen peroxide or magrantovskoy.
3. Make a compress from saline or sprinkle crushed aspirin on the bite site. You can attach a slice of a cucumber, plantain or bulb.
4. Be sure to take the antihistamine that you have in stock: Suprastin, Claritin. It is better for an allergy sufferer to immediately inject an antiallergic drug - Diphenhydramine, Suprastin, Dexamethasone.
5. If the bite fell into the hand, then you should immediately remove the rings and bracelets - with the appearance of edema, this will already be difficult to do.

Particular vigilance should be shown when a sting hits the head or neck. In this case, in addition to the above measures, it is better to immediately call an ambulance.

Important! Do not scratch the site of the bite or carry out the treatment with alcohol-containing drugs. It is not allowed to take sleeping pills or alcohol to alleviate pain.

Ways to destroy nests

First of all, you need to inspect the site to identify the hornet's nest.

When searching for them, you should carefully inspect:

• trunks and branches of trees;
• attic and roof areas;
• various places under the canopies of buildings;
• abandoned buildings;
• window openings;
• upper and lower part of the balcony.

The hives of these insects are oval with a narrowing below the gray or brownish color. Sizes may vary depending on the number of living insects.

Any measures to combat these large wasps must be carried out in protective clothing.

To destroy nests, use the following methods:

• mechanical;
• traps
• bait;
• insecticidal drugs.

Did you know? In Japan, an average of about 40 deaths from bites of Japanese hornets is recorded annually.

If you destroy the nests mechanically, you can do the following:

1. Burn the nest. For this purpose, they put a large plastic bag on it and set it on fire. In this case, everything needs to be done very quickly. For safety reasons, the package can be pre-treated with an insecticidal preparation, and then held in a tied state for a longer time so that the majority of the insects die and then set on fire.
2. Place the nest in a bucket of water. For this purpose, you need to pick up a bucket of sufficient size so that the nest fits there. A bucket of water is brought to the housing from the bottom with a hornet so that it is completely immersed in water. A container of water should be kept for at least 10-15 minutes so that all insects drown. When choosing this method, it should be borne in mind that a full bucket weighs decently, and keeping it in a certain position is also not easy. To enhance the effect, you need to take hot water or add kerosene, bleach or vinegar.
3. Extinguishing foam from a fire extinguisher. Thoroughly fill the entire nest so that the insects freeze from exposure to carbon dioxide. After a while, the nest is knocked down.
4. Use of construction foam. The frozen mass will block all the housing and will not allow insects to fly out.

Traps and baits are used if they cannot find nests or it is difficult to destroy them. Traps can be purchased at the garden store, or can be made on their own. For this purpose, you need to take a bottle of plastic and cut 1/3 from the top, and then place the cut part with the neck down.Pour sweet bait (jam, syrup, juice) into the bottom. Hornets penetrate the bottle by the smell for sweets, but can’t get back. Holes are made in the bottles from above, through which they hang ropes or wire, and then hang them on trees. Periodically, the traps are cleaned and a new bait is poured.

Important! Before cleaning traps, make sure all insects are dead so as not to get bites. To reduce risks, it is better to spray into the trap and wait.

You can make your own bait. To do this, place containers (usually saucers) with your favorite insect sweets in the area. Poison is added to such sweets (boric acid, chemical preparations "Karbofos", "Aktara"). After eating such food, hornets will bring poison to their home on the body and infect other insects.

As insecticides use special aerosols from hornets ("Aerosol Dr. Klaus", "Dichlorvos"). Processing should be carried out very quickly, trying to get inside the nest, and then go to a safe place. It is better not to approach the nest for several days, since the missing hornets returned to their dead relatives will be very aggressive.

The processed hornet housing should be burned after several days.

Insect Control Safety

When conducting activities aimed at combating hornets, it is necessary to adhere to the following security measures:

1. Wear protective clothing or clothing made of thick fabric that completely covers the entire body. The skin must be fully protected.
2. It is better to protect the face with a mask from bees that are used in apiaries.
3. Protect hands by wearing gloves made of thick fabric or rubber.
4. It is imperative to prepare a first aid kit. It should contain drugs from bites (hydrogen peroxide, alcohol), as well as anti-allergic drugs - Suprastin, Dexamethasone.
5. During the work on the destruction of the hornets on the site should not be children and animals, as well as other unauthorized persons. After all, the remaining hornets, noticing the loss of the nest, are not at all friendly.
6. Destroy the nest at night or just before dawn, when the activity of insects is the lowest. It is best to carry out the procedure for the elimination of dwellings by hornets in the spring, when the population of insects is not so large.
7. When there are already a lot of insects, it is better not to take risks and contact the appropriate sanitary services. The same thing must be done if you are not sure that you can get rid of them yourself.

The bite of the Japanese hornet is dangerous for allergy sufferers and not only, since this species of insects has toxic poison.

Important! If a hornet has bitten you, then do not rush to kill it. By his death, he will give a signal to other members of the nest, and you can be attacked by a large number of individuals.

Multiple bites and stinging in the head or neck area are most dangerous. Timely assistance in all cases of bites should be provided immediately.