The world's largest hornet
A queen can be more than five centimetres long, with a wingspan of over seven.
A Japanese garden · Bees, wasps and ants
Asian giant hornet
Vespa mandarinia
A very large wasp with an orange head, a dark brown thorax and an abdomen banded in orange and brown.
- Size
- Workers 3.5 to 4cm, queens over 5cm
- Look for it
- April to November
- Where
- Woods and low hills in Japan and across East Asia
Hovers after you with a deep hum. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Giant hornet
Good to know
Six things about the giant hornet
A raider of beehives
A few dozen hornets can wipe out a hive of thirty thousand European honeybees in a few hours.
Bees that cook it
Japanese honeybees have a defence. Hundreds of them pile on to a hornet scout and shiver until their body heat kills it.
A long-distance flier
It can fly at about 25 miles an hour and travel many kilometres in a day.
A serious sting
Its sting is long and painful. It is dangerous mainly if someone is stung many times, or is allergic.
It nests in the ground
Unlike most hornets it usually nests underground, often in an old mouse hole or among tree roots.
The real thing
Photos of the giant hornet
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Look where sap runs from an oak tree, where they feed alongside beetles and butterflies. Watch from a distance.
How to help
Leave nests well alone and tell someone who can deal with them. Away from the nest, a hornet is not looking for trouble.
Keep going
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