The rise of wasps

Experts are seeking to explain the mass attacks of giant hornets in China.

China's central raging bees, accused of killing at least 41 people here. The painful deaths of the victims forced the authorities to enter, quickly establishing special medical units and warning rural people to stay away from forests, according to Xinhua. However, in fact what is happening in those places? Are the bees pissed off by timber harvesters? Or is climate change causing bees . to go crazy? Or do they become sensitive to chemicals spreading in the air? Or is it simply the victims who have reached the number so they stray into their territory?

According to CNN, scientists studying insects such as Vespa mandarinia , also known as the giant wasps , said that the chances of bees becoming uncomfortable by the warmer weather, as well as previous frustration human disturbance. James H. Carpenter of the American Museum of Natural History in New York collected these bees in Vietnam's tropical forests. 'You see them flying around you and thinking of hummingbirds, not bees. When burning people, they can cause bleeding. Really scary creatures , 'he said. With a length of 4.5cm and a 6mm single nozzle, Asian wasps are the world's largest bees.

Asian hornets are notoriously aggressive - (Photo: AFP)

In the past few weeks, Chinese media have repeatedly led sources from local officials, saying that the wasps' attacks have injured more than 1,640 people and 42 have been killed since July. . The local government said that the migration process of wasps was disturbed by unusually warm weather. There was even news that some bee victims suffered more than 200 shots per time.

Some Chinese newspapers and news agencies try to link bee attacks to people with climate change. However, researcher Carpenter, one of the world's leading experts on wasps, is skeptical. The first reason, hornets are not habitual migration, as well as their range does not expand over time. They exist in both tropical and temperate climates in Asia, stretching from India to South Korea and Japan, south of peninsular Malaysia and northern Russia's Ussuriland province. Carpenter also noted that hornets often scavenge venom before injecting up to 200 shots. And some victims died of kidney failure. A more plausible explanation is that rural residents in Shanxi Province, where the attacks took place, are moving gradually into the bee's residence, which is isolated and undisturbed for generations. .'I see attacks happening in forests,' said James Whitfield, an entomologist at the University of Illinois. 'Humans start going into these areas and appear closer to the beehives. It's not that bees have become more fruitful than before, but because of the number of times people interact with them is increasing , 'said expert Whitfield.

Can they cross the vast ocean to 'invade' new lands, like the United States? Carpenter expert rejected that hypothesis. Giant hornets often attack and kill flocks of other socially organized insects, such as honey bees. Later, they used these bees to feed their young bees. This behavior makes it difficult for them to expand their territory to a whole new continent. Meanwhile, the smaller and less aggressive European wasps have come to the United States in the 19th century, since then spread throughout the south and mid-west of the country.