The largest hornet in the world is scientifically known as the vespa mandarinia. The length of a worker hornet ranges between 3.5 -3.9 cm, wingspan of 5-6 cm and weigh 0.9 grams, while the queen's length is usually around 5-5.5 cm in body length and has a wingspan of 7.6 cm. They also have a stinger that is 0.25 inches long and the giant hornet can sting you numerous times and not even have the stinger detach from its body. These creatures can fly as fast as 25 miles per hour!

Mating: 

Mating for these creatures takes place during autumn, then in spring the queen will start her colony where she produces up to 40 eggs and will continue to do so until end of summer where she produces thousands more! 

Lifespan:

The worker hornets have a really short lifespan! Their lifespan is between 12-22 days, whereas the queen has a lifespan of one year. 

Where can you find these hornets?

These giant hornets are usually found in Taiwan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and China, but you'll mostly find them in the mountains of Japan. They live in low mountains and forested areas and will build nests underground and in tree hollows. Nests are made of chewed bark. They live in colonies that consist of a queen, drones and workers. The queen lays eggs and creates a colony, the drones fertilize the queen, and the workers take care of the young ones, collect food and protect the nest. The drones unfortunately don't survive for very long. Soon after they fertilize the queen, they will die. 

Asian giant hornets have such weird behaviors in my opinion! The reason why I say this is because they often attack wasp nests and beehives. Once they've done that, they will dismember and chew up the wasps and bees into balls and feed them to their larvae. They will also do the same to the pupae and larvae of the occupied hive and nest of their prey! One giant hornet alone can kill 40 honeybees in a minute, so imagine how many bees get killed by a swarm of giant hornets in just a few hours. 

These creatures are very aggressive, which is why they suggest that if people come in contact with them to turn around and avoid them. Asian giant hornets are so dangerous that they can kill you! They travel in swarms and have a deadly venom and in that venom there's a neurotoxin called mandaratoxin which destroys red blood cells and eats through human tissue. The good thing is that being stung once by the hornet won't kill you but it you do get stung more than that, then you should get checked out. Those who survive these attacks are often left with kidney problems and will need dialysis in order to get rid of the toxins in the kidneys. So be aware of these creatures!

Hope you enjoyed learning about the Asian giant hornet!

     

Image sources: 

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