They've been terrorizing
animals and humans in Asia,
and now
they've come to North America.
This is the murder hornet,
one of the deadliest insects
on our planet.
Hornets and wasps, in general,
are deadly.
In the United States,
they cause 33% of animal-related deaths in adults.
But Asian giant hornets,
or murder hornets as they're now known,
aren't just your average insect.
They're extremely fast,
flying up to 40 km/h, (24.8 mph).
They're the the largest hornet in the world,
and they destroy entire bee colonies with ease.
So we know they're lethal to bees,
but what if a murder hornet stung you?
If a pack of murder hornets
is about to sting you,
you'll first hear a loud buzzing noise.
What's different about these hornets,
compared to others, is that
they might be lurking underground.
So there's a chance they could sneak up on you,
and you wouldn't see them coming.
If this is about to happen,
run away as fast as you can.
Experts say you
definitely don't want to swat them.
So you try your best to cover your face,
and to seek shelter as soon as possible.
But what if you didn't manage to get away in time?
Just one sting from a murder hornet
could cause some severe issues.
The pain of their stings
has been compared to a hot nail
being jammed under your skin.
That's from their long stingers,
which are extremely painful when touched.
But the main thing you'd need to worry about
is the neurotoxin they inject into your body.
It's called mandaratoxin,
and will destroy your red blood cells once you're stung.
Not only that, but
the toxins are strong enough that they could
also dissolve your skin.
The pain from just one sting
could be so severe that there's a good chance
you'd collapse on the ground.
You could try your best to run away,
but you'd probably be in too much pain.
You might instinctively try to swat them away,
but that would only attract more of them towards you,
and make them more aggressive.
And if you did manage to run and hide in water,
that may help
as they wouldn't sting you while you're in there.
But they'd wait for you to get out
and attack you again.
These hornets are psychopaths.
And if you don't manage to get away,
before you know it,
you'd be surrounded by hundreds of murder hornets
ready to sting you.
They'd all begin to attack,
and it would feel like hundreds of sharp,
hot nails being jammed into your skin.
Your body would start to swell and balloon up.
With each sting, it would be harder to move.
And In just a couple of minutes,
you'd become unconscious from the pain.
The mandaratoxin would then
enter your bloodstream,
shut down your organs,
and kill you.
And because the murder hornets
are even bigger jerks than we thought,
they'd continue to sting you
even after you die,
until they no longer deem you a threat.
But you can avoid all this.
After all, the murder hornets attacked you because
they thought of you as a threat.
So if you can,
try not to go near these things,
and then you should be OK.
But what if we couldn't avoid them
because all of Earth's insects were giants?
Well, we'll leave that story for another WHAT IF.