True hornets are giant social wasps—not bald-faced lookalikes
Hornets are Vespa wasps, the largest eusocial vespines—European workers to about 35 mm, Asian giants past 50 mm. Twenty-two species exist, mostly Asian tropics; North America’s “bald-faced hornet” is actually a yellowjacket with an aerial nest habit.
Like other social wasps, they chew wood into paper nests ruled by one egg-laying queen and sterile female workers. Many hang nests in trees; some, including the Oriental hornet, nest underground. Tropical colonies may run year-round; temperate ones die each winter while queens hibernate. Males lack stingers and stay docile. Europeans reached eastern North America mid-nineteenth century at familiar latitudes but never the West; Asian hornets have invaded parts of western Europe.
Stings hurt more than typical wasp jabs because venom holds about five percent acetylcholine, and finely barbed stingers withdraw so individuals can sting repeatedly without dying like honey bees. Single stings rarely kill except via allergy; multiple stings from species other than V. crabro can be fatal. Asian giant hornet venom ranks among the most toxic, linked to roughly 30–50 Japanese deaths yearly and 42 Chinese deaths in mid-2013. Alarm pheromones—including 2-pentanol blends in giants and 2-methyl-3-butene-2-ol in Europeans—can mobilize whole nests; crushed nestmates or even banana-like fragrances may trigger attacks.
Adults sip nectar and rotting fruit; larvae eat thoroughly chewed insects—bees, grasshoppers, locusts—and repay workers with sweet secretions. A European colony may peak near 700 workers by late summer before producing new queens and drones for nuptial flights. Hunting specialists such as V. velutina use sight and smell to find honey-bee colonies.
Paper architects, sugar tipplers, and formidable hunters—the real Vespa earns its oversized reputation.
Source: Hornet
