- [Mark] From Mario and I's perspective, we can definitely
say that that sting was by far the worst reaction
from a single sting.
- [Coyote] Yes.
- [Man] You're ever had.
- Ah, oh this thing's stuck in my arm.
Ah!
(screaming)
- [Man] You gotta tell us if you're in trouble.
- Ugh.
♪ Fire ♪
♪ A fire on the mountain ♪
what's going on Coyote Pack and welcome to a special
episode of Base Camp because it's also an aftermath
episode coming right off the sting from
the Japanese giant hornet.
And if I'm not quite on point for this episode,
it's probably because it's only been 12 hours
since I was stung. - We're still in Japan!
- Yeah.
- And we're inside.
Why are we inside, Mario?
- We're inside because there's currently a typhoon
raging outside our doors.
- Typhoon Tranny is right outside but hey,
we gotta film the video, right?
We gotta show what happened to your arm.
- Yeah absolutely.
We thought it would be interesting to do
a slightly different after math video
so we could really dive in and dissect this sting
because it was one of the most epic we have ever
featured on the channel.
- For sure, it's only been 12 hours but already,
I mean, look at your arm, I mean.
- It's huge.
- Don't need to say much more.
- It looks like a fully plumped hot dog,
the swelling is all the way down into my elbow.
- Oh yeah.
- All the way up through my wrist and I think
if you were to stick me with a fork right now,
it would explode.
- Show em the Popeye effect, show em the whole thing.
There you go.
You've been eating your spinach, huh?
- No, I've been taking Japanese giant
hornet venom to the arm.
I don't recommend it guys, trust me,
it has been an excruciating 12 hours and Mario,
as we know, there are multiple species of hornets here
in Japan and we went after the biggest.
- Yeah traveling to this region, naturally,
everyone was gonna ask us about the Japanese
giant hornet, right?
So doing our research we determined that there
are several species.
Some of them that look very similar.
- Yeah we brought some with us.
- Right actually this is cool.
The etymologist we were working with in the field
gifted us this amazing collection, look at that.
So these are the four largest species of hornet
that live here in Japan and the only true giant
is this one right up here in the top, left corner.
- Yeah.
- And that is the species that I was stung by.
The true Japanese giant hornet.
- Sure, we had some difficulty initially
actually finding one.
- Yeah.
- And we caught one that we thought was a giant hornet
but during further research, we determined it wasn't.
- Yeah that was actually, that's a good point to make.
We can actually show some of that footage 'cause
it probably didn't make the episode.
That was actually this species right down here.
- Still pretty big.
- Still way bigger than any of the hornets we have
in the United States and very similar in design.
A yellow head, same aposematic coloration but
as you can see, the size difference is pretty noticeable.
- Yeah, oh yeah.
- Very significant.
- So okay, let's, let's turn the microphone over
to ask you some questions.
- Yes.
- First of all, how you feeling?
- Really out of it.
I'm in a daze, I feel like I'm sick,
my body is definitely fighting against the venom right now,
I felt nauseous, I barely slept last night,
I try to just keep an ice pack on my arm
to minimize the swelling, took some antihistamines.
- At breakfast you told us there was a transition
last night from like searing pain to extreme itching.
- Yes my arm itches like crazy right now
and I just keep doing this, ah.
- Stop, stop, stop.
- I know, you're not supposed to itch it but it is
so itchy right now and still the pain isn't nearly
as intense as it was, you know, the first six hours
after the sting, it sort of dissipated throughout
the course of the night but it was still uncomfortable
to the point where it made it almost impossible to sleep.
- Well for Mario and I's perspective, we can definitely
say that that sting was by far the worst reaction
from a single sting.
- [Coyote] Yes.
- [Mark] You've ever had or bite actually.
- [Mario] Yeah correct, yeah the immediate response
was intense swelling, I mean, we could see it
immediately, lots of the other stings,
it was a little bit more of a gradual swelling,
visual but that visual of you just like boom
exploding into little like egg shaped knot.
- [Mark] We'll put up a picture right here as like
an instant goose egg on your arm.
- It was crazy and now where I think that that
came from was similar to the bullet ant,
when the hornet stung me, it's stinger went
so deep it actually got stuck in my flesh.
It makes for a very interesting comparison between the two.
- Yeah, I almost had a flashback to the bullet ant,
when you said the stinger's stuck in my arm, like almost
the same scenario where it's dancing around.
- Yeah well and in that moment I mean,
of course, similar to the bullet ant, I wanted you guys
to be able to get that shot to the best of your ability
and it took every ounce of strength I had to not swipe
the insect off of my arm and to let that stinger take hold.
- [Mark] And of note, of course, is you had significant
amount of venom injected.
Based on the size ration of this insect compared
to the pallaeh, everything else we dealt with,
the amount of venom going in is great.
- I would say arguable this is probably the most
amount of venom that has been pumped into my arm
by an insect at this point.
- From one insect.
- Still the bees on the face I think is the worst reaction
you've ever had.
- [Coyote] Oh yeah, definitely.
- But from one insect, I would agree.
- Without question and I would like in this sting
from this insect to be similar to the bite
of the giant desert centipede.
- Sure. - Really?
- As far as like.
- That bad?
- Definitely that bad, yeah and certainly the aftermath
of my arm swelling like this, the centipede did
the exact same thing so in the midst of filming
that episode, it's really tough to catch and compose
your words and really think about what you're saying
and I'm sure all cut together wonderfully
in post production 'cause we're filming this before
the episode is even edited.
- [Mario] Right.
- [Coyote] And you guys are watching this after it had
been edited and then you saw the episode
but I think in the midst I was saying it was
certainly more painful than the tarantula, without question.
- [Mark] Yes.
- [Coyote] And after the fact, I have to say,
that the Japanese giant hornet dethrones
the bull ant as the most painful sting.
- [Mark] Really?
- Yes, without question.
And here's why, here's why.
Now the bullet ant itself, based on intimidation factor,
it's really not that scary, it's just a big ant,
kind of charismatic, actually.
- [Mark] There's a lot of lore behind the bullet ant.
- There is but there's also a lot of lore behind
the Japanese giant hornet and in fact,
multiple people, as many as 10 to 25 people
die every year from the stings
of the Japanese giant hornet.
Nobody dies from bullet ant stings.
So you have to think about it.
- So in your opinion, how many stings do you think
a person could take before it becomes a life
threatening situation?
- I would guess probably 10 stings
and of course it depends where you were stung
so take the bee here for example,
if you were to have 10 of these hornets attack you,
if you disturbed a nest and they latched onto you,
keep in mind those little feet have grappling hooks
on them, they have those big, biting mandibles, right?
- You could hear their mandibles clipping
and they can sting multiple times.
- Sting multiple time, which bees cannot so if you've
got 10 of these hornets that were to latch onto you,
if you disturbed a nest, my guess would be 10 stings
could kill anybody.
- Yeah in the research that we conducted,
certainly every year, just like in the United States
every year people die from bee stings, right?
And generally it's an allergic reaction
so not only do you have the potential
to having an allergic reaction but multiple,
huge stings will definitely cause a lot of edema
and it could actually block off your airway.
That's the danger.
- Yeah, well that's why I'm saying that if you were
stung in the face that would probably be the case.
- And I mean, it's tough to and Mario,
you can speak to this like you know, being behind
a camera, witnessing one of your friends go through this,
we talked about this beforehand like,
Coyote tells us like try to get me to respond,
try to get me talking and even asking you questions,
while you're growing through that experience,
you almost feel bad in a way but yesterday
was certainly one of those times where I was
seeing the swelling and thinking to Mario,
do we need to be really worried here?
- Sure, you know the first initial seconds is crucial
for any sting, right?
If you do have an allergic reaction and go into
antiepileptic shock, that happens within seconds
so that moment where we monitor you know,
your speech, your vitals, everything, very important.
Once we pass that and we're into the minutes,
okay that part is safe, you're not gonna go into
shock but now we have to work with your reaction
of the actual venom.
It's amazing how the different venom properties
will either last longer, what they're gonna affect
and so on and I agree, that significantly
this reaction is worse than the bullet ant.
- Oh yeah.
- However the bullet ant, you were basically,
what 36 hours later, you were kind of like,
it still hurts.
- I was surprised to hear that you're ranking it up
there with the centipede bite.
- [Coyote] Yes.
- [Mark] Like that to me, I mean we've talked many times
off camera like you've always said that
the centipede bite will always be the top.
- [Coyote] Right.
- [Mark] To you but you were saying
that this is right there?
- This is right there for sure.
It's not as bad as the gila monster bite
but keep in mind guys, bites and stings
are very different.
More venom comes from a bite than a sting
but again, the stinger getting stuck in my arm
and pumping venom multiple times is a big dose.
I mean you can feel, I mean you guys can't feel
it through the camera but my entire elbow is swollen
and we had marked on my arm the swell lines.
I still have some of the Sharpie marker spots.
- It just went right past that.
- That was the sting, this was the immediate swelling
and now I mean, you know, my wrist,
it feels like if you were to stick me with a fork,
it would go pop.
- Put your a, both your forearms next to each other
so you can kinda see that.
- Yeah we'll go ahead and get a tight shot
of that right there.
You guys can see one forearm as compared to the next
and certainly if I turn them like this.
- Yeah.
- This one is just ah, it's so.
- Popeye.
- Yeah, it's crazy so you know, as we are gearing
up for the release of the executioner wasp,
I know the burning question out there from all of you
is, will that sting be more painful than
the Japanese giant hornet?
And it's strange because we filmed that episode
over a year ago so we have the executioner wasp
in the can for over a year but we felt
we needed to get this one first.
I'll tell you what guys, the executioner wasp
episode absolutely delivers, I promise you will
not be disappointed and if the giant hornet
was any indicator as to what the executioner's
gonna be like, trust me guys, it was well worth
the year long wait.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
- I'm Mark Vince.
- I'm Mariio Aldecoa.
- Be brave.
- [Mark And Mario] Stay wild.
- We'll see you on the next Base Camp adventure.
- Let's get some tea.
- Yeah, tea time.
Hey Coyote pack, are you excited for the conclusion
to my climb up the insect sting pain index?
If so, learn more about these thrilling
and painful adventures in my new book,
The King of Sting.
It swarms into book stores November 27th
but you can pre-order your copy today.
Look for the link in the description below
and don't forget, subscribe, then click
the notification bell so you can join
me and the crew on our next wild adventure.
Ah!
Oh, thing is stuck in my arm.
Oh, searing pain.
Absolutely searing pain.