Asian hornet

[cariann88]

I have just seen this on the internet......killer hornet

Asian hornets that have left six dead in France could travel to Britain | Daily Mail Online

[Lumpy]

Now that is just scary. Poor old honeybees are getting hammered from all sides. Less pollinators, less crops, less food for our ever growing population.

[Jay22]

Yuk! I would collapse if I came across one of those, they are huge. I do remember the same story being in the news last year too...hopefully they won't make it over the channel.

[Nicos]

The normal hornets over here are big enough without having to look out for those!!

To give you an idea of the 'normal' size....

When we get them in the house they sort of sit quietly and then occasionally you hear a very short , deep pitch buzz.
Everyone jumps up and tries to locate it so as to catch it and put outside again.

One day I managed to grab a Guinness pint beer glass and invert it over the hornet.
I accidentally caught it's foot under the rim...and noticed one of it's legs on the other side was actually touching the opposite side of the rim

The European Hornet, although does destroy bees, is actually not as aggressive as you would expect.
If they are flying around you need to stand very still and they will fly around you taking a good look at you, decide you're not worth bothering with and then go about their business.
They also don't pester you when you eat outdoors!

[Martin H]

It's a good idea not to pay too much attention to what the Daily Mail says, especially where immigrants are concerned.