The Chinese city living in fear of giant killer hornets


Chen pointed with a shaky hand at the small plot of cabbage, spring onions and corn where his friend, Yu Yihong, had been stung to death by giant hornets.

"When he got to the hospital, there were still two hornets in his trousers," said Chen, a farmer who, like many villagers, declined to give his full name to a foreign journalist. "The hornets' poison was too strong – his liver and kidneys failed, and he couldn't urinate."

Yu, a square-jawed 40-year-old farmer in perfect health, had been harvesting his crops when he stepped on a nest of Vespa mandarinia hornets concealed beneath a pile of dry corn husks. The hornets swarmed around Yu, stinging him through his long-sleeved shirt and trousers. He ran, but the hornets chased him, stinging his arms and legs, his head and neck.


V mandarinia is the world's largest hornet, around the size of a human adult's thumb, yellow and black in colour and highly venomous. Its 6mm-long stingers carry a venom potent enough to dissolve human tissue. Victims may die of kidney failure or anaphylactic shock.

vespa mandarinia
An Asian hornet (vespa mandarinia) eats a honeybee. The sting of the highly venomous giant hornet, which measures about the size of a human thumb, can dissolve human tissue and cause kidney failure. Photograph: Scott Camazine

Yu's story is a tragic but increasingly common one in north-west China's Shaanxi province, where, over the past three months alone, hornets have killed 41 people and injured a further 1,675. Ankang, a municipality in the province's south, appears to be the centre of the attacks. While hornets infest its mountainous rural areas every year – 36 residents were stung to death between 2002 and 2005 – local people and municipal officials say this year it is tantamount to an epidemic, the worst they have ever seen.

At least some of the deaths were caused by V mandarinia, experts say. The species does not typically attack unless it feels its nest is threatened. But when it does, it can be fierce and fast – the hornets can fly at 25mph and cover 50 miles in a day. They make their homes in tree stumps or underground, making nests extremely difficult to detect.

People blame this year's scourge on climate change: the past year has been unusually warm, allowing a high number of hornets to survive the winter. Huang Ronghui, an official at the Ankang Forestry Bureau's pest control department, lists a host of other possibilities: the hornets may have been agitated by a dry spell, while labourers have been moving deeper into the mountains, disturbing their nests. "Other than this, hornets are attracted to bright colours and the smell of people's sweat, alcohol and sweet things," he told state media. "They're sensitive to movement, such as running people or animals."

The region has also been overrun by the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, a slightly smaller species which can be equally dangerous. Hundreds, even thousands, inhabit each nest, which typically hangs from a high place. In Chengxing village, a few miles down a winding mountain road from Yu's home village, 16-year-old Tan Xingjian pointed at a tree in the distance. Hanging from one thick branch was a pale, basketball-sized bulb, its surface alive with darting black specks. "That's where they live," Tan said. "We don't dare to go near there."



Firefighters destroy giant hornets in Ankang
Firefighters destroy dead hornets in Ankang, Shaanxi province, China. Photograph: China Stringer Network/REUTERS


The hornets seem ubiquitous in Ankang. In Liushui township, a scattering of two-storey concrete homes sandwiched between a lush hillside and a stagnant river, an elderly shopkeeper in a purple blazer said the hornets had infested a cabbage patch near her home. "The government has been coming down and burning them, but they can't burn them all," she added, pointing down into the brush. "I'm not willing to go down there."

