Deadly Insect is Crossing Our Borders

An old woman recently discovered a deadly hornet, the Asian hornet, that has been leaving it’s homeland of Easter Asia and slowly making it’s way across Europe and to the U.S. Beverly Palfreman ran for cover after she saw a large, frightening stinger in one of her windowsills. Initially, Beverly was sitting quietly at home when she heard a noise near the window. After witnessing something crawling across her windowsill, she decided to take a closer look and was scare to death by the giant stinger.

The mysterious pest appeared a wasp-like insect with brown body with a faint yellow band around it and a yellow head. She knew right away that it wasn’t a European hornet, which has a red head and brown striped body. Curious, she decided to see if she could identify the bug on the internet. What she discovered chilled her to the bone.

The hornet in her house turned out to be an Asian hornet, which has already moved through France and England. In 2015, this hornet species caused the deaths of five different people in France by causing them to go into anaphylactic shock. Not only are the deadly to humans, they tend to kill around 50 bees a day, meaning they are serious contributors to our dwindling bee population.  These hornets mean business. They have teeth so strong that they can chew through protective bee clothing, and they can kill a human with a single sting, which contains a powerful neurotoxin.

Have you seen any strange looking hornets around lately? Did you look it up to see what kind of insect it actually was?