Asian Giant Hornet

• A group of hornets can wipe out an entire colony of European honeybees in a few hours.
• It eats large insects, tree sap and honey.
• New queens mate in autumn and then hibernate until the following spring.
• defensaA small group can wipe out an entire honeybee colony in a few hours by decapitating the workers.
• It is the largest hornet in the world: up to 5 cm in body length and 7.5 in wingspan.
• It attacks hives in groups. A few dozen hornets can wipe out an entire European honeybee hive in hours, decapitating the workers with their mandibles, and afterwards they carry off the larvae to feed their own brood.
• The Japanese honeybee, by contrast, knows how to defend itself, and its method is remarkable: it surrounds the scouting hornet in a ball of hundreds of workers and vibrates its flight muscles until the temperature rises to about 46 °C. The hornet dies of heat; the bees can withstand up to 48. It is a thermal execution.
• The European honeybee has no such defence, which is why commercial Apis mellifera hives are so vulnerable in Asia.
• Its sting is very painful and its venom contains mandaratoxin; in Japan it is blamed for several dozen deaths a year, almost all from allergic reactions.
• It was detected in North America in 2019 and triggered an eradication campaign that was declared successful in 2024.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Low mountain forest and temperate country of eastern, southern and South-East Asia; also recorded in the north-western United States

Birth weight

Develops from egg to larva fed by the workers

Size at birth

A larva fed on prey chewed by the workers once the egg hatches

Sexual maturity

The new queens mate in autumn, then hibernate until the following spring

Gestation / incubation

A full cycle from egg to adult of roughly 40 days; the larvae stay in the cell some 18 days as pupae

Litter / clutch size

The founding queen lays some 40 eggs at first; a mature nest may hold as many as 3,000 cells

Sources consulted: Dimensions.com; Glenlivet Wildlife; Oregon State University Extension; EBSCO Research Starters; Invasive.org; A-Z Animals; WaspWorld; UF/IFAS Extension