This is an Asian giant hornet. You don’t want to mess with these guys.

Today I want to write about a very dangerous species of insect, the Asian giant hornet.

Here are five interesting facts about them:

1. Asian giant hornets are the largest species of  the wasp and hornet family in the world, with the queens growing over 5 cm long.
2. They are very aggressive carnivores, hunting other insects, including bees, mantises and other hornets.  They use their very large jaws to kill their prey, often biting bees in half.  They also have tough armour to protect them from bee stings and have very powerful stingers themselves.
3. They use scent marking to tell other members of their colony that they have found food so that they can attack as a group.
4. The queens make nests in the ground and lay their eggs there.  The adults will make a paste from their prey and feed it to the larvae.
5. Asian giant hornets are found throughout eastern Asia and are especially common in Japan.  Their powerful venom and aggressive nature means that they kill dozens of people every year.

I hope that you found these facts interesting and learned something new.

Are there any other interesting facts that you would like to share about Asian giant hornets?