Hornets are called social wasps. These insects are the largest representatives of the wasp family and live in colonies. The hornet is a predatory insect that has a reusable sting and poison.
Appearances can be deceiving
The hornet can easily be confused with a wasp, or with some species of striped flies that live in abandoned hornet nests. This phenomenon is called mimicry. The coloring of the hornet is bright - brown with orange or yellow stripes. These colors undoubtedly catch the eye, “screaming” that an attack on an insect promises danger.
Hornet - winged predator
Where can you find hornets?
Hornets can be found in many places. And the groups cover numerical ranges in Europe, North Africa, Asia and North America.
"Winged Predators"
In addition to the fact that the hornets' diet consists of sweet plant nectar, their menu often includes other insects, such as wasps or bees. But the hornet itself is deservedly called the “winged predator.” Decent size and high degree Their aggressiveness allows the hornet to attack even robber flies, which themselves are not averse to profiting from insects.
Hornet nests
Although hornets have a “reusable” sting, they very rarely bite humans. Hornets build their nests from a kind of paper, which they obtain by gnawing the bark on young birch branches. That is why their paper, unlike other types of paper, is not gray, but brownish. Hornet "communals" can be found in hollow trees, in caves, birdhouses, and on steep slopes. Initially, females build combs from several cells facing downwards. As the family grows, the next ones are suspended from the first cells, etc. Large nests can consist of 6 tiers, up to 0.5 m in diameter.
The construction of the nest begins in the spring by the queen, the main female, who mates with the drones (males). She also lays eggs.
Reproduction of hornets
Only the queen can lay eggs. After hatching from the eggs, the larvae are fed by workers - sterile females. After capturing the victim, the hornets return to the nest and feed the larvae with chewed prey. Soon the larvae turn into adult hornets.
Do you know that:
- After the first frost, all working hornets, the queen and the males die.
- Fertilized females find shelter and hide in places protected from frost to overwinter. In the spring, new nest construction begins, and life cycle repeats itself again.
- Only working females and the queen are armed with a sting. With one bite, insects can paralyze or kill the victim.
- Hornets, like wasps, have a straight and smooth sting, so they sting repeatedly. The bee genus (except for the queen), unlike hornets, has a disposable sting.
- Hornets are much larger than wasps. Despite this, they are less likely to sting people.
- Hornets often make their nests under the roofs of residential buildings or other buildings, which, naturally, can cause concern to residents, since the insects make terrible noise. And on the way to the nest they often fly into windows.
- Hornets only sting when they feel threatened. Therefore, if this insect approaches you, do not pay attention to it, do not wave your arms or try to drive it away.
- Hornets are very beneficial insects, as they destroy many pests, so they should be protected.
"Deadly Bite"
You can't hear enough about them! There are many terrifying stories about swarms of hornets attacking animals and people, killing them with their bites. Fortunately, these stories are not true. Of course, a hornet can sting, but
The hornet is an insect from the wasp family, which is considered one of the largest representatives of this family. There are 23 species worldwide. People usually call them winged pirates.
Asian giant hornet
Hornets are predators. They kill their prey with a sting or tear it apart with their jaws. The victims of predators are flies, mosquitoes, beetles, gadflies, wasps, grasshoppers, caterpillars, dragonflies, butterflies, spiders, and weakened bees. Hornets can also hunt nocturnal insects.
Per day big family winged corsairs can catch more than 500 grams of insects. Hornets are useful for the garden!
In different areas where the Asian hornet lives, I call it differently. For example, in Japan the name “sparrow-bee” was attached to it (due to its large wingspan). In Taiwan, it was nicknamed “tiger bee” (due to its specific coloring: black stripes on a yellow body). You can also meet the giant hornet here in Russia - in the Primorsky Territory. In our country they simply call it - “AAAAAA..., remove it quickly, AAAAAAA.....”.
The Asian hornet has earned its notoriety thanks to its highly toxic poison, which it has in abundance. In terms of toxicity, the bite is many times more dangerous than bites other hornets, because it contains a large number of poison. Such a bite can be fatal. The hornet's main weapon is a 6-mm stinger, which mercilessly pierces human flesh and injects toxins.
The poison received its deadly properties due to its content high concentration Mandorotoxin. In addition to it, the poison also contains toxic substances that cause destruction of human tissue. Fuuuuuuu...... But the worst thing is different. These toxins attract other giant hornets.
Japanese huge hornet
Compared to our cute honey bees, which leave their stinger where they sting, the Asian hornet can use its stinger over and over again.
Jaws is another one terrible weapon Shushi, but not for humans, but for other insects. In particular, for ordinary worker bees. Hornets - them natural enemies No. 1. Voracious giants attack bee nests to dine on their larvae. There is a known case where 30 large hornets killed 3,000 bees in an hour and a half. Hornets crush their prey powerful jaws like a gardener wielding his scissors.
But the bees are not in debt either. They developed their own defense tactics. To fight, bees use 2 methods - carbon dioxide and heat. They create “bee balls” around the hornet and kill the enemy in 10 minutes. This happens due to the high temperature that forms inside this ball. In addition, the concentration in it sharply increases carbon dioxide, which in combination with high temperature kills giant insects.
For man serious danger represents sting to asian giant hornet. It has a 6 mm poisonous sting. The basis of its poison is extremely toxic substance Mandorotoxin, which, when bitten, seems to “burn” a person’s skin.
One Japanese scientist discovered that in some cosmetics contains substances that attract these killers. This discovery has great importance for Japanese residents, because in this country more than 70 people die every year from wasp and hornet bites.
The hornet will never fly to the table where there is sweets, will not intrusively climb into a jar of jam or sit on a fragrant pie or grapes. This distinguishes him from annoying wasps and always tries to fly away from a person and not collide with him.
Hornets attack humans only when real threat their home. If you accidentally or intentionally damage their nest, do not expect mercy. They will fiercely protect their offspring from intruders. Unlike bees, the hornet stings repeatedly as long as it has enough poison to do so.
The sting of the common hornet is painful to humans, but the toxicity of the venom varies significantly depending on the species of hornet: some sting no more painfully than many other insects, while some individuals are generally ranked among the most poisonous insects known today. Allergic reactions to a bite in in some cases can be fatal if the victim of anaphylactic shock does not receive immediate medical attention.
The consequences of a hornet “bite” depend on the reaction of the stung body. The venom of common hornets and most species of hornets is less toxic than that of bees; the sting does not remain in the wound when injected. A large amount of venom injected by a hornet causes quite serious inflammation. With high individual sensitivity (allergy), the consequences may be more severe, and with a large number of injections (for example, if a hornet nest was disturbed), death is possible. I Asian species more toxic than European ones, and they are also noticeably larger. According to the special Schmidt sting pain scale, the pain from a hornet sting is approximately comparable to the pain from a honey bee sting and is in the center of the scale (moderate strong pain). Thus, the fear of the hornet is largely exaggerated: its “bite” is not commensurate with the size of this insect.
Hornets cause significant harm in forests, where they hunt for food. building material gnaw the bark of young trunks or branches of ash, alder, birch, willow, linden and other trees. If chewed heavily, the tops of young trees may dry out or grow abnormally. Damage from the hornet wasp is observed mainly in young ash plantations.
The hornet is found throughout almost all of Eurasia, reaching as far north as Finland. In Russia it can be found even in Siberia. There is especially a lot of it in the Primorsky Territory.
Hornets feed the larvae mainly with live food. Their prey is many insects, which they are able to kill with a sting or simply with their jaws. The prey is immediately chewed to pieces. If the food is a bee, then the hornet gnaws off its head and abdomen, chews its chest thoroughly and feeds the larvae with this “gruel.” The adult itself prefers nectar and other sweet foods. Therefore, located near the apiary or directly on it, hornets cause serious damage to it.
According to V.A. Kadymov and X.Z. Asker-Zade (1989), most often, having made several circles above the hives, the hornet lands near the entrance and begins to lie in wait for prey. During a predator attack, worker bees cling to each other and form a strong chain protecting the entrance. An attacking hornet must first break through it, which it does not always succeed in doing. Having grabbed the bee, he kills it and sucks the nectar from the honey crop. Then it flies up to the nearest tree or plant and, clinging to a branch with its hind legs, hanging upside down, bites off the head, legs, antennae and abdomen. The hornet does all this in 2.5-3 minutes.
The bee's chest is clamped with its jaws and carried to the nest, where the food it brings is distributed among the workers, who, having made a homogeneous mass, feed the larvae with it. The hunter hornet returns to the hive again. During an attack, sometimes 30-40 bees or even more attack it at the same time, stinging the joint between the head and chest, which leads to paralysis and then to the death of the predator.
Hunting for bees, the hornets try to drive each other away from the hive, sometimes a fight ensues between them, which sometimes lasts for an hour. The winner immediately deals with the victim: grabbing the enemy’s chest with his jaws, he flies towards the nest or eats it right there on the spot. Wrestling hornets usually belong to individuals from different nests, as evidenced by their approaching the hives from different directions.
Hornets start hunting bees at 9 am. Most of all they destroy bees from 11 to 13 hours, then a break, and after 16 hours and until 19 (20) hours the hunt continues.
During the period of maximum numbers, each working individual hornet makes 40-45 foraging flights from the nest during the day. Each hunting hornet destroys one, and sometimes two bees in 15 minutes, and, according to our data, in August, September and the first half of October, when the bees are preparing for winter, in 15 minutes of observations in the apiary the maximum number of predators was noted - 45÷ 60 individuals.
The hornet not only hunts bees, but also climbs into the hive for honey. This usually happens in the fall, when families are already gathering in a club, while he feasts on honey and attacks the bees, most often killing them. If the beekeeper does not notice the predators at the entrance in time, then they will short term can destroy big number inhabitants of the hive, since they will only visit this nest.
Man learned to make paper about 2,300 years ago, but hornets and wasps “invented” it much earlier - several million years ago! The secret of making a nest is very simple: the insect tears off pieces of wood fibers from a dead tree or post, moistens them with its saliva and kneads them, turning them into a paste, which it uses to build the nest. Hornets build nests very impressive size, but, unfortunately, they are short-lived. The reason for their fragility is their poor resistance to dampness, and over time they become loose.
In the 18th century, the prominent French scientist Reaumur was the first to discover the “invention” of hornets. Before this, people made paper from rags, and Reaumur suggested using wood chips as well. The principle of paper production has not changed, man has only modified it to produce different grades of paper.
Hornets build a new nest every year, since all its inhabitants die by winter, except for the queens, who establish new colonies. With the onset of cold weather, young fertilized females look for a safe place where they can spend the winter without freezing. And in the spring, feverish work begins again. Encouraged by the warmth, female hornets look for a suitable place in a hollow or underground hole, mold the first few cells from chewed wood and lay their eggs in them. The female intensively feeds the emerging brood, and soon she has reliable helpers - working hornets. So the summer, which is not short for hornets, passes in labor. Maximum sizes The hornets nest reaches only towards the end of summer.
Hornets eat other insects and love mulberries. In summer they strip off the youngest ash, alder, birch, willow and poplar trees or branches of older trees. They tear off strips of wood 50 cm or more long just to get to the sap.
A hornet colony only exists for a few months. It consists of the queen that created it, working hornets, future queens and stingless males. Workers are usually small in number (from 400 to 700, rarely up to 1500), while the common wasp sometimes has 5000 insects in one nest.
A big mistake would be made by someone who, mistaking hornets for bees, climbs into a hollow to get honey. The ferocity of huge wasps knows no bounds, and their poison is strong and there is a lot of it. Hornets cause a lot of inconvenience to beekeepers (locating their nests nearby) as they steal honey from the hives. But the beekeepers themselves say in such cases: “It’s more fun in the apiary with them... Every living thing has its purpose. Let them live."
Hornets are excellent architects and builders. They make their nest from rotten wood, which they chew and mix with saliva. From the resulting substance, the hornets build honeycombs and nest shells, using their saliva as glue. The dried shell of the nest strongly resembles corrugated paper. The color of the shell depends on the type of wood from which it is made.
Hornets never use their nest in the second year. In the spring, after overwintering, the hornet queen finds a convenient place to build a new nest. She attaches a small leg to the ceiling, on which she makes the first cells of the honeycomb.
While in the nest, the hornets secrete quite a lot of liquid, which flows out of the structure in drops. To prevent the ceiling insulation from getting wet, I placed a container under the nest. During the life cycle of the hornet family, almost two buckets of their waste had to be removed. And at the end of September, the hornets began to actively throw out undeveloped larvae.
The queen lays eggs in the honeycomb, from which larvae develop. Gradually, the honeycombs increase in size, the first working hornets appear, which are included in the work of building the nest.
The nest grows from top to bottom, while the number of tiers with honeycombs increases and a multilayer nest shell is formed. The more tiers of honeycombs are laid, the more hornets will live in this nest. The structure's shell, up to 8 centimeters thick, protects hornet larvae from summer heat, occasional cold spells and drafts.
According to the literature, in a large family of insects, nests reach a diameter of 1.5 meters!
Until the frost, life in the nest of insects is in full swing. By mid-October, all working hornets die, and young queens will find protected places for wintering with minor temperature fluctuations, where they will remain motionless until spring, waiting out the severe winter cold.
Most entomological scientists consider hornets to be beneficial insects. In Germany and some federal states of Austria they are protected and their destruction is prohibited by law.
And yet, no matter how wonderful builders hornets are and no matter how peacefully they behave, we must try to keep them away from humans. The easiest way to get rid of hornets is at the very beginning of summer, when the young queen is just laying her future nest. At this time, there are still very few insects, and humans can cope with them.
There is an opinion that big nest hornets can be destroyed at night by placing it in plastic bag or by spraying the nest with insecticides. But in a large nest it is difficult to spray the poison so that it affects the individual in its entirety. In addition, few people know that hornets never sleep, are well oriented in the dark and will easily attack a person at night. It is also known that hornets stay overnight where night finds them. Having flown to their destroyed nest in the morning, the hornets will sting everything that moves. A cheerful life will be guaranteed for you for a couple of days!
If you find a large hornet nest in the attic of your home, try not to disturb it. And since you are unlikely to find a specialized service for exterminating these insects, prepare to live peacefully with them until the first frost, observing their life.
Simple rules of human behavior dangerous neighbors: do not come too close to the nest, do not make sudden movements near it, do not make noise, and do not destroy insects near the nest. A late autumn try to seal all possible cracks through which hornets can get under the roof of your house.
The common hornet (Vespa crabro in Latin) is one of the most common species of the Hornet genus. The appearance of this insect is well recognizable, and its size does not allow it to be confused with wasps or bees. This species is the most common in our country, and in the whole world, among the 22 species of its relatives, the common hornet has the widest habitat: it inhabits the entire temperate zone Eurasia and North America.
The common or European hornet is almost the most frequent guest in gardens and summer cottages. Here it can settle, making its nests, or simply fly in from nearby plantings and forests in search of food.
It is generally accepted that the bite of a common hornet is not only very dangerous to human health, but is also more painful than the bites of wasps or bees. In general, it is difficult to argue with this statement, but for the most part, hornets are no more dangerous for people working on the site than other stinging insects. If you take a closer look at the common hornet, this seemingly dubious fact will become obvious.
Appearance and anatomy of our largest wasp
If you look at the common hornet from a systematic point of view, it becomes clear why this insect is so often compared to wasps, bees, ants and bumblebees: they are all related species, because. are included in the Order Hymenoptera. And in appearance, the European hornet resembles a greatly enlarged paper wasp, only the top of its chest is repainted from black to brown.
The photo below shows a common hornet:
Experts know that hornets differ from wasps in some other color details. Thus, the black constrictions on their abdomen are less pronounced, and its very base is brown. However, from a distance, ordinary people can easily mistake hornets for wasps themselves, especially if you see them in large numbers near the nest.
Wasp photo:
By the end of summer, the family of common hornets acquires such a size that it can provide food for individuals capable of reproduction. The queen begins to lay eggs, from which non-sterile females and males hatch. Around September and early October, these individuals swarm and mate.
A few weeks after mating, the males die, and the females look for suitable secluded places in the area (under stones, snags, in hollows) and hide in them for the winter, so that in the summer each of them can give birth to a new family.
It is worth noting that old queens and working hornets die in winter, and their nest becomes empty. However, young females never occupy the old nest - new life They always start with a new home.
In nature, the nests of common hornets are most often located in hollows or on tree trunks.
In conditions of proximity to humans, for example, in summer cottages, these insects choose courtyard buildings, attics, niches under roofs and slopes, i.e. places where it is always calm and quiet.
Speaking about the proximity of the hornet and man, one cannot help but pay attention to the craze for fighting hornets, which takes place in Lately. As a result of such thoughtless extermination in many regions of our country, these insects became extremely rare, and therefore they began to be included in the regional Red Books.
If a common hornet settles in your personal plot, it is worth destroying its nest only when the insect’s home constantly has to be disturbed during work. In this case, it is better not to risk it and remove the nest with any in a safe way. If the insects’ home is in a secluded place, they themselves are unlikely to bite people living next to them without reason.
Before you fight hornets, be sure to remember that one family of them destroys up to 100 pests on your site per day. Before you kill a hornet just like that, think about what serious support it can provide you in the fight for the harvest.
Hornet stings are among the most dangerous among insects. This is explained by the nature of the poison and its quantity (the hornet is a large insect).
Hornet is one of the most major representatives kind of wasps This massive insect, measuring up to 55 mm in length, is very dangerous. In fact, the hornet differs from an ordinary wasp only in the size of the top of its head and its rounded abdomen. Like all representatives of the wasp genus, hornets build their paper nests. You can often distinguish a hornet's nest from an ordinary wasp's nest by color. Since hornets are accustomed to building nests from rotten stumps and birch branches, their so-called hive has a bright brown color, and the wasp nest has a cool gray tint. To build their nest, hornets choose a variety of hollows, attics and paths. These insects feed on flies, bees, wasps, mosquitoes and all smaller insects. Like all representatives of wasps, hornets are very fond of sweets. In addition to their smaller brothers, they feed on substances that contain a lot of sugar, for example, honey from bees.
How dangerous is a hornet and how bad the consequences can be
Many people, especially those living outside the city, are concerned about the question: “How dangerous is a hornet to humans?” These insects occupy one of the first places in terms of danger and degree of harm to the human body. The danger is represented by its poison, which can affect both the tissue at the site of the sting and the entire body as a whole. Representatives of the tropical species of hornets are especially dangerous. Tropical hornets use deadly poison; moreover, they are larger than their European relatives and inject more poison when they bite. But don’t think that the common European hornet is much safer. Its bite can also be fatal. Especially if the victim is a person who is highly sensitive to insect poisons.
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The venom of this insect is the most powerful among all insect venoms. Therefore, you should not torment yourself with questions: “how is a hornet dangerous,” and by any means you should avoid contact with these insects.
How does the poison work?
As mentioned above, hornet venom is very dangerous. Let's take a closer look at how the bite of this insect affects a person.
The first thing a person begins to feel after a hornet bite is a sharp throbbing pain. The sting itself resembles a bee sting. Then large swelling and inflammation appears at the site of the bite. Hornet venom destroys cells and walls blood vessels. It is because of this that local hemorrhages occur, and sometimes, in especially in rare cases even extensive hematomas, suppuration and general complete poisoning of the body.
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Moreover, the person begins to suffer from severe headaches, the heartbeat accelerates, the temperature rises and the head becomes dizzy.
If the victim is attacked by not one, but many insects at once, this can even lead to death.
Sometimes, in order to save a person after being bitten by a hornet, his fingers were amputated.
Are there any benefits from hornets?
Most people are more concerned about why the hornet is dangerous and very few people are interested in whether this insect has any benefit.
By its nature, the hornet is a predator that destroys a large number of different harmful insects on which it feeds. Thus it brings benefits. But not when they start building nests in apiaries. In such cases, they are terrible pests and killers of honey producers.
In order to get rid of hornets that have chosen your area for their nest, it is important to strictly adhere to safety measures.
To begin with, you should wear very thick protective clothing. Make sure that every part of your body is covered so that insects do not have a chance to sting you. Be sure to take care of a mask that will protect your face.
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Then you need to choose the right time. Hornets are active and aggressive during the day, so it is best to deal with nests early in the morning or late in the evening. Due to lower temperatures, hornets are less active in the morning and evening. Then find some kind of stick or long pole and pick up the nest. Take it somewhere away from your home.
Prevention measures against hornets
In order for these dangerous creatures you have not been bothered, you need to adhere to some preventive measures.
Here are some of the most important rules preventing the appearance of hornets in your home:
1) Remove the food source. Hornets have very good memory, so they perfectly remember the places of food sources and visit them regularly. Uncollected garbage or leftover animal feed is a great tempter for these insects. Therefore, do not throw garbage around the yard; store all leftover food in special airtight containers.
2) Change the landscape of your site. As mentioned above, hornets have a very good memory. They are able to remember everything down to the smallest detail. Therefore, if there was previously a nest of these dangerous insects on your territory, then try to change it as quickly as possible. appearance plot. Remove a few branches, place some decorative elements in the yard, figurines, and seal holes. This way you will deceive the insects and make your life easier.
3) Carefully destroy all traces. Remove all traces of previous nests. Remove all honey, wax, remains of nests and other obvious signs of hornets. Then all these places must be thoroughly treated with pesticide. Be careful during processing.
Hornet is pretty dangerous insect. Therefore, avoid contact with him. Be extremely careful and never allow children near them.
If we evaluate the danger of an insect by the degree of toxicity of its poison and the damage it causes to the human body, then hornets can truly rightfully occupy one of the leading positions. The hornet is dangerous to humans because its venom can affect not only the tissue at the site of the sting, but also the entire body as a whole.
Particularly serious damage to human health is caused by large tropical species these insects: the poison of these hornets may well lead to the death of a person. However, death can also occur with the bite of smaller European hornets: if a person who is highly sensitive to insect poisons is attacked, then without professional medical care his life may be in serious danger.
However, despite such cases, in fact, hornets are more peaceful than many of their relatives: bees, collective wasps and some ants. Even having strong poison in their arsenal, these insects are not the most great danger, since it is used extremely rarely and only in exceptional situations.
If a person, in the “opinion” of the hornet, attacks him or threatens the nest, then the insect will certainly be angry and aggressive. In this case, the answer to the question “is the hornet dangerous for humans?” will be obvious.
This is interesting
As shown Scientific research, even if a person tries to purposefully catch a hornet, the insect prefers to flee rather than attack the offender. Hornets attack only when there is obvious aggression towards them: if they sit on them, grab them with their hands, or destroy the nest.
The effect of hornet venom on the human body
As mentioned above, the danger of the hornet to humans is explained primarily by the presence of a powerful poison in the insect. Thanks to its special complex composition, hornet venom has multifaceted lethal effect on various tissues and organs.
Let's look at how the bite of this insect affects a person.
- The very first thing that appears is a sharp throbbing pain. Those, for example, who have been stung by Asian giant hornets, compare the bite to a hot nail driven into the body. The pain from the venom of the European hornet, of course, is less impressive, but in general it is comparable to the sensations after a bee sting.
- The stung area swells, swelling and inflammation appear.
- The poison causes destruction of cells and walls of blood vessels. As a result, local hemorrhages appear, and in especially severe cases - extensive hematomas, suppuration and general poisoning of the body.
- In addition, the toxin stimulates headaches, increased heart rate, dizziness, and fever.
However, in most cases, the consequences of a single hornet bite are limited to the appearance of slight swelling and swelling at the site of the injury. If hornets attack in a group, their bites lead to extensive inflammation, hemorrhage and even necrotic tissue damage. There are numerous cases where, due to delays in going to hospital, injured people had to have their fingers amputated.
Hornet venom contains substances characteristic of snake venom that cause cell breakdown. As a result, many cellular components enter the tissues, which are “garbage” at the molecular level, requiring immediate disposal from the body’s point of view. A complex microbiological process occurs, ultimately leading to the appearance of tumors and edema.
Among other things, the poison contains acetylcholine, a compound that causes activation of nerve endings. Simply put, when an insect toxin gets under the skin, it first of all acts on nervous system a person, activating burning pain even before significant tissue damage.
“A hornet bit me once, when I was living in India. My father had a small farm in the suburbs of Mumbai, and there I was bitten by an ordinary small hornet. It was amazingly painful, it felt like I had been shot in the leg with pellets. The pain lasted for several days, and my mother injected me with painkillers. The leg above the bite in the knee area was swollen and did not bend, but in general I felt fine and even walked along the street, limping.”
Naymasar, Orlando
But all these effects, even accompanied by general intoxication of the body, cannot lead to death. The hornet is truly dangerous for humans in the case of even if not strong, but still existing sensitivity to insect poisons. Hornet venom is extremely allergenic, and if the human immune system is not able to cope with it, then the likelihood fatal outcome alarmingly large.
Allergy and anaphylactic shock
Can a hornet kill a person? Even if it’s just one, and not tropical, but the most common, European one? Let's find out.
Not only does the hornet's venom itself contain histamine - a catalyst for all instant allergic reactions - but also some substances that make up the toxin of this insect contribute to the release of its own histamine from the affected tissues of the body.
It is not surprising that after a hornet sting, almost immediately and without exception, all victims develop an allergic reaction. The degree of its manifestation depends solely on the individual sensitivity of people: for some, a hornet sting causes only local inflammation, for others, a rapidly spreading immune response with increased body temperature and difficulty breathing, and for others, anaphylactic shock and death.
Today, thanks to the development of medicine and pharmacology, people who know about the characteristics of their immune system, have the opportunity to be vaccinated with special vaccines that increase resistance to the venom of insects in general and hornets in particular. Such vaccinations will not make the bites themselves painless, but will provide weakening allergic reaction and, as a result, will protect against anaphylactic shock and probable death from it.
It is worth noting that an attack by several hornets at the same time in any case will pose a serious danger to absolutely everyone: in this case, neither relatively good tolerance of the poison nor vaccination will save you from an allergic reaction.
How hornets attack
The hornet is most dangerous near its nest - while protecting it, the insect can attack even without visible provocation from humans. And if it occurs to someone to try to remove the nest, drown it in a bucket or smoke out the inhabitants, then an attack is guaranteed.
When attacking, this large wasp releases special aromatic substances into the air, which are a signal for other individuals. As a rule, after such a “call”, all the inhabitants of the nest are distracted from their affairs and begin to attack - not only the offender, but generally anyone who is nearby. It is precisely such situations that are the most dangerous and most often lead to serious bites and even death of a person.
In general, getting a hornet “out of control” and provoking it into aggression is not an easy task, and you need to try very hard to, so to speak, anger the insect.
Thus, a hornet, busy hunting or collecting building material for a nest, is very indifferent to humans.
If an insect feels that it is being pursued, the first thing it will do is try to hide; if you try to catch him, he will also choose to escape. The hornet will take a defensive position and defend itself only when it is in the hands of a person, under his foot or other part of the body.
Thus, the aggressiveness of the hornet is a very ambiguous phenomenon. Like every person, every individual insect is aggressive in its own individual degree: some are very calm and bite only when there is a pronounced danger, while others can be provoked into attack even by seemingly non-aggressive actions in a person’s opinion.
This is interesting
The length of the sting of the European hornet is 3 mm, and the huge Asian hornet has twice that length - more than 6 mm.
A characteristic and very interesting feature of these insects is that what smaller sizes individual, the more aggressive it shows. So, more often than others and in large quantities Small ones sting people, while their huge “brothers” are incredibly peaceful.
The European hornets that inhabit our country are also very calm and attack much less frequently than wasps or even bees. In most cases, hornets attack beekeepers and summer residents who try to destroy their nests or install special traps for wasps and hornets in the immediate vicinity of insect homes.
“The only negative memory from this summer is the attack of hornets on me and my husband. We have an area near the planting, and from there the hornets fly to the blackberries. Somehow before everything went without conflicts, but this time we were attacked by many hornets at once. This is terrible, of course. As soon as he strikes, his eyes darken from pain. I was bitten by four hornets, my husband – by nine. Okay, we managed to quickly run into the shower and turn on the water. It scared them away. My head immediately began to pound, my legs began to give way, my heart ached. The husband seemed to feel better, but his whole face was so smashed that he could not open his eyes. We sat like that for half a day in front of the shower. I can’t get up, Sasha can’t go. Then we finally reached the summer kitchen, stuffed ourselves with pills, and decided not to call an ambulance. My bumps from the bites went away in a week, for Sasha – in ten days.”
Veronica, Uman
In the video about a hornet attack on a person:
When do hornets attack people and how can it be dangerous?
Sad statistics: hornets really kill
The vast majority of information about hornet attacks is not popular fiction, but a fact confirmed by official sources.
So, in Japan, for example, hornets are almost the most dangerous representatives local fauna - they kill about 40 people here every year. More people Not a single land animal is killed in this country. Sometimes local murder hornets, if, of course, it is appropriate to use this expression in such a serious situation, give even predatory sharks a head start.
Japan and China are not far behind the statistics: in 2012, giant attacks occurred in Hainan Province. Asian hornets More than 1,600 people were exposed, of whom 42 died.
Every year, several hundred people are treated in US hospitals due to hornet stings. It is worth noting that initially, before the industrial development of America, hornets were not found on the territory of this country - here they are introduced, i.e. introduced by humans, a species that is gradually capturing more and more new lands.
But various eyewitness stories about cruel hornets, passed from mouth to mouth and gradually acquiring additional “facts”, turn out to be fiction - often ordinary wasps are mistaken for hornets.
If a hornet, no matter what species it belongs to, does sting, first of all the bite site should be lubricated with alcohol or any balm such as “Rescuer”, “Menovazin” or “Fenistil”. At the slightest suspicion of the development of an allergic reaction, i.e. if the temperature rises, dizziness and other symptoms mentioned above appear, you must take antipyretic and painkillers and urgently go to the hospital.
Remember: any signs of allergies may indicate a risk of developing anaphylactic shock. Play it safe, don’t rely on Russian luck – your health is in your hands!
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