Asian Giant Hornets

For years, Clemson Extension personnel in South Carolina have received claims from many homeowners that they have Japanese or Asian giant hornets on their property or nesting in their homes. They have not. They have either had native cicada killers, baldfaced hornets, or the exotic European hornet. All these wasps are large, but they are not as large or intimidating as the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia. South Carolinians often use the subspecies name Japanese hornet, Vespa mandarinia japonica, but experts have merged the two as just the Asian giant hornet. Unfortunately, now some in the news media are reporting them as “murder hornets.”

Asian giant hornets are big. They are five times larger than a honey bee, and they may feed on many other insects, especially other social bees and wasps such as honey bees. They have a super thick exoskeleton making them impervious to honey bee stings. Their size and thick “skin” has led to many urban legends about their ability to attack and even kill (murder) people and other animals. Despite these myths, Asian giant hornets pose no more of a threat to people than any of the native bees or wasps. Asian giant hornets do pose a threat to managed honey bee colonies. While honey bees can’t sting Asian hornets to death, they can kill individual hornets by “balling” around them, vibrating their flight muscles, and killing the hornet by heat exhaustion. However, when multiple hornets attack at once, they are able to overcome the bees’ natural defense, killing the workers. In this manner, they are able to destroy a honey bee colony in a matter of hours.

Back in the 1980’s, Africanized honey bees moved into Texas from Central America. This strain of honey bee was more defensive in