Number 9 Aleema Bibi In recent years, there have been several reports
of tea plantation workers being attacked by wasps in Sri Lanka.
In 2017, for example, several female workers were hospitalized after a swarm descended
upon them in Kotagala.
The most recent attack took place in the summer of 2020.
According to a local media outlet, the incident occurred at St' James West Plantation Unit
in Linthula.
The workers had inadvertently bothered a nest while tending to the crops.
Mother-of-four Aleema Bibi and others were rushed to the hospital after sustaining multiple
stings.
Unfortunately, the 59-year-old woman had suffered a severe reaction and was pronounced dead
on arrival.
What Is It?
Wasps are flying insects with narrow waists that belong to the Hymenoptera order, alongside
ants and bees.
They have three main body parts protected by a hard exoskeleton.
The “waist” is called a petiole and it separates the thorax from the insect’s pointed
lower abdomen.
The wasp’s stinger actually evolved from an egg-laying apparatus called the ovipositor.
It’s one of the reasons that male wasps can’t sting and are essentially harmless.
The stinger, which is either retractable or extends freely, is modified for piercing,
sawing or injecting venom.
It’s used by the wasp as a defensive weapon but also for predation.
Additionally wasps have large, compound eyes and mandibles used, by some species, to decapitate
prey.
Number 8 Zombie-Maker The beautifully-colored jewel wasp basically
turns cockroaches into zombies in service of its young.
It will initially swoop down and deliver a sting that paralyzes the cockroach’s legs.
The second sting targets a specific area of the cockroach’s brain that inhibits the
insect’s escape reflex.
The victim’s incapacitated but the jewel wasp isn’t strong enough to pull the insect
to its burrow.
That’s why, after robbing the roach of its free movement, it chews off roughly half of
each of its antennae.
It then pulls on them, like a leash, guiding the insect to its burrow.
The jewel wasp then lays one or two eggs between the roach’s legs and covers the burrow’s
entrance.
With its escape reflex neutralized, the roach is helpless as the wasp larvae start feasting
on its body.
Number 7 Group of Boys in Cardiff In November of 2019, a group of boys, aged
7 to 14, became the victims of a brutal wasp attack at a park in Cardiff, Wales.
As they were playing around, one of the older boys found the wasp nest near a tunnel entrance.
By the time he’d told the others to stay away, the insects viciously attacked.
The boys were screaming and crying as the wasps swarmed them.
Three of the boys from the group were stung, some over a dozen times.
One 7-year-old was taken to the emergency room with 24 stings and hives all-over his
body.
Fortunately, none of the victims had sustained life-threatening envenomation.
Where Is It Located?
Wasps are an extremely diverse insect group, with over a 100,000 identified species.
Hornets and yellow jackets are among the best known species.
The various wasp types include some truly monstrous insects, such as the giant scoliid
wasp.
It has a wingspan of 4.5 inches, which is longer than the average index finger.
The ovipositor of the 5-inch-long giant ichneumon wasp is massive and used for boring through
wood.
Not all wasps are enormous.
Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, for example, is a parasitic wasp and the smallest known insect.
Some wasps are social insects while others are solitary.
Social wasps, which are exclusively from the Vespidae family, own powerful stings and bright
coloration to warn others of their potent venom.
Most solitary wasps are parasitoids and will lay their eggs inside other insects so that
the larvae can feed on their host while it’s still alive.
Number 6 Stephen Cockroft 70-year-old Stephen Cockroft, from England’s
Cheshire County, accidentally disturbed a wasp nest while trimming the hedges in his
garden.
The insects aggressively attacked Cockroft’s face and torso.
The man ran away, desperately flailing his arms, but the wasps pursued and kept stinging
him.
After the attack was over, Cockroft headed straight to the emergency room.
He’d been stung at least 42 times, with some of the stingers still lodged in his skin.
He survived the attack but described the experience as very painful and marked by a lasting, burning
sensation in his face, neck, arms and torso.
Number 5 Murder Hornets Asian giant hornets are not only among the
most venomous wasps but also the largest members of the hornet family.
With stingers that grow to be about a quarter of an inch and a 3-inch wingspan, these insects
have earned a fearsome reputation.
They’re believed to cause anywhere from 30 to 50 deaths every year in Japan.
Media outlets refer to them as “satsujin suzumebachi” which literally translates
as “murder hornet”.
The name was picked up by newspapers in North America after the hornets were first reported
as an invasive species.
Research seems to indicate two different introduction points.
They’ve been spotted at least five times in the Vancouver area.
The last reported sighting was as recent as June 2020, in Bellingham, Washington.
There is a danger that the insects will become so deeply entrenched that removal may become
impossible so a wide-scale hunt was initiated by authorities in Washington.
While their presence might yield human casualties as well, the impact of murder hornets on the
native honeybee population would be apocalyptic.
How Will It Kill You?
Baring a severe allergic reaction or sustaining multiple stings, individual wasps can’t
really kill you.
There are some species, however, which own a notoriously painful sting.
American entomologist Justin Schmidt created a scale that describes the pain associated
with insect stings and wasps feature prominently on it.
He noted that being stung by the warrior wasp felt like being “chained in the flow of
an active volcano”.
The sting of the tarantula hawk he referred to as “blinding, fierce and shockingly electric”.
Executioner wasp stings are not only incredibly painful but the venom can make holes in your
skin as it chews through tissue.
The swarming behavior of social wasps is the deadliest aspect of their interactions with
humans.
Unlike bees, wasps can sting multiple times.
In rare cases, people can go into life-threatening anaphylactic shock.
Research shows that, even for those who aren’t allergic, being stung over 50 times by a swarm
of giant Asian hornets can cause multiple organ failure.
It’s within this collective injecting of venom that the deadliness of most wasp species
truly lies.
Number 4 Galdino Guzman In September of 2016, New Mexico man Galdino
Guzman died after a swarm of paper wasps attacked him.
The 62-year-old was trying to remove an old tree from his property when the insects descended
upon him.
He suffered multiple stings which resulted in heavy swelling.
Guzman was rushed to the hospital, where his condition worsened overnight, and he ultimately
succumbed to his injuries.
Number 3 Killed at a Funeral In November of 2019, eight members of the
Pang family were attending the funeral of a relative, in the Chinese village of Tangdu.
As they were leaving the burial site, the eight men stumbled upon a massive wasp nest
and the insects became extremely aggressive.
Some of the mourners were stung over a hundred times.
A 70-year-old Pang family member died of anaphylactic shock at the scene.
Two other men, aged 60 and 87, suffered the same fate after arriving at the hospital.
The others survived, but experienced severe pain.
In the incident’s aftermath, forestry experts and the local fire brigade removed the wasp’s
nest.
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How to Survive?
Surviving a wasp attack can very well mean, to avoid antagonizing them in the first place.
Give nests a wide berth and always call professionals if you want them removed.
Individual sting treatment involves removing the stinger, by scraping it with a credit
card, washing the area and applying a cold compress.
If you’re swarmed, even though it may sound counter-intuitive, your best bet is to stay
calm.
Protect your face and neck while moving quickly and purposefully without flailing your body
too much.
Don’t try swatting at individual wasps.
They can release alarm pheromones prompting the arrival of reinforcements.
Be mindful of your surrounding as you’re running away and don’t retreat in bodies
of water.
It’s best to seek professional medical assistance if you’ve been stung multiple times.
If you have a history of bad reaction to stings, carry an EpiPen so that you can deal with
anaphylaxis, which may be fatal.
Its symptoms may include severe swelling in the face, the appearance of hives, shortness
of breath, dizziness or a drop in blood pressure.
Number 2 Spider Mind-Control One species of Costa Rican parasitoid wasp
exerts a type of mind-control over their host, an orb-weaving spider called Plesiometra argyra.
First, a female has to immobilize its victim.
To do so, it will either attack directly or pretend to be caught in its web.
As soon as the spider’s within range, the wasp will grab hold of it and repeatedly stab
it with its ovipositor.
Once the spider is paralyzed, the wasp will probe it for existing larvae or eggs and remove
them before placing its own egg inside the arachnid.
For the next few weeks the spider will behave normally, with the wasp larva slowly growing
and feeding on its insides.
When the larva is ready to pupate, it will release a chemical which actively changes
the spider’s web-weaving behavior.
The arachnid will create a new type of web unlike anything it had built before, meant
to support the wasp cocoon.
The spider then lies motionless at the center of this web.
Once the cocoon is ready, the larva bursts out, killing its host.
Number 1 Dwayne Kriegel What had started out like a regular day for
mail carrier Dwayne Kriegel ended in tragedy.
He was making a deposit in an outdoor mail box, much like he’d been doing for the past
three decades on the job.
As he reached inside, Kriegel was stung multiple times by wasps.
He was allergic to their venom and carried an EpiPen, but never got a chance to use it.
The medication was subsequently found, unopened, next to him.
He did manage to call his wife, who alerted the authorities.
Kiregel had gone into anaphylactic shock and suffered a heart attack.
He was found by first responders and was airlifted to a hospital.
By that point, Kriegel had sustained irreparable damage.
His brain had gone 14 minutes without oxygen, meaning that massive swelling occurred.
Kriegel died in the hospital.
In the aftermath, his wife hoped that the incident would serve as a reminder of the
dangers posed by wasps.
Thanks for watching!
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