I know, I know. You have Putin to worry about, ISIS to worry about, Britain's near breaking, Washington's broken, and the globe keeps getting warmer — so why bring up Japanese giant hornets? You have worries enough. But I can't help myself. I've got to mention these hornets because, as bad as they are — and they are very, very bad ...
Courtesy of Matt Inman
... this story has a happy ending.
Hornets From Hell
Japanese giant hornets have large yellow heads, enormous eyes, and they eat bees. "Eat" is too polite. They grab European honeybees, rip off their heads, tear off limbs, throw those parts away and take the big, juicy middle piece (the thorax) back to their kids (the larvae). They are unstoppable. A single hornet, you are about to learn, can kill 40 European honeybees a minute.
European bees, being new to Japan (brought in by cultivators), have evolved no defenses. They haven't had time. But there's a second group of bees — the locals, the Japanese honeybees — who have found a way. It's precise, orchestral and deadly.
How Bees Fight Back
Matt Inman, who writes and draws a wonderful blog called The Oatmeal, bumped into these hornets — literally — while running through a forest in Japan. Being curious, he read up on them, and in his new book, The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances, he describes how a crowd of little Japanese bees gets revenge using what Matt happily calls a "Steamy Hot Murdersquish":
Courtesy of Matt Inman
Courtesy of Matt Inman
Courtesy of Matt Inman
Courtesy of Matt Inman
It is. Very neat.
Comments [16]
Bromskie, it actually does say 1.5 seconds, although it's a bit hard to tell. I just thought about it for a second, realized that may would be incredibly off, so I looked harder.
And I totally agree that all of you complaining is just ridiculous. Yes, this article now exists in two places on the internet, with full credit given to the person that wrote it (will done Matt! Very cool.) What a travesty! Or maybe, it introduces people that may not know about the Oatmeal to go visit, or people at the Oatmeal that may not know about Krulwich/Radiolab blog to be inspired to visit. Krulwich liked Matthew Inman's work, and posted it here. Did you like it? Or, if you had already read it, could you skip it? Just quit your bitching about the stupidest things, my goodness!
Here is a video of this
http://www.wimp.com/honeybees/
IleanaDU - "So, you are mistaken; it is the oatmeal that took Krulwich's article"
Um, no. Matthew Inman/The Oatmeal wrote and drew this comic for his upcoming book. Krulwich thought it was cool and funny and wanted to share it, so he reproduced it here, as well as on his blog at npr.org. Krulwich got permission from, and clearly gave full credit to, the original author. Afterwards, Inman posted the comic to his own website as a pre-release preview of his book. No one took anything from anyone, and no one tried to pass off someone else's work as his own.
And I love the people here who scoff at the "laziness" of someone who sees something interesting and wants to bring it to the attention of a larger audience. You know, that thing people do on blogs all the time.
For those accusing Krulwich of plagiarizing, or taking his article directly from the Oatmeal, note that the Oatmeal page at the very top contains the following sentence:
"This comic was originally featured on NPR via Robert Krulwich's blog, Krulwich Wonders, and I'm reposting it here as well."
So, you are mistaken; it is the oatmeal that took Krulwich's article and re-posted it AND they gave proper credit.
Makes you kind of wonder who the Oatmeal is, doesn't it?
I wish I could get paid money to re-post an entire segment from somebody else.
I have seen the documentary about the Hornets and Bees years ago. It is outstanding.
So, this article was you unblinkingly reposting the Oatmeal's content ? Wow journalism must be hard.
Fascinating! I love Radiolab, and try never to miss it. Our poor honeybees!
Chris Bomnskie, learn how to zoom in, aka enlarge a pic.
Steamy-Hot Murdersquish is the name of my new punk-metal jam band.
I think it would be 1 corpse every 1.5 seconds, not 15.
The giant hornet kicking the head off the bee...needs to be a shirt...available in up to 3XLT (3xl tall)...
I would order 2...
#thanksobama
Krulwich + The Oatmeal = Amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Krulwich is such a good writer. Brilliant.
I wonder if this kind of group hornet/honey bee behavior happens in North America as well? I witnessed something similar and bizzare. I was in the middle of a large field to play soccer with my kids, and we watched in amazement a hornet and a honey bee colliding mid-air, fighting it out in a small patch of clover, and the honey bee gave off a frantic rapid buzzing of it's wings. The hornet quickly chewed the bee in half, and then picked up the abdomen and flew away!
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