2016年06月13日
Another New Wildlife Encounter
Hello, all!
I mentioned a few months ago that I'd finally seen a tanuki in the wild, while driving home from Niihama. With that, I thought I'd seen all the animals I wanted to see in Japan. But I had forgotten about a very important one!
HELLO.
How could I forget the Japanese giant hornet, known as the "Great Sparrow-Bee" (オオスズメバチ) in Japanese? It's one of the largest hornets in the world, blessed with a stinger over a quarter of an inch long, the ability to fly at up to 25 miles per hour for 60 miles a day, according to this article the wing strength to lift up to six pounds, the terrifying efficiency to kill up to 40 honeybees (their favorite prey) per minute, a pheromonal marker they can apply to anything they want the rest of their hive to attack, a sting so excruciatingly powerful it generally requires hospitalization (and supposedly kills 40 people a year in Japan, although I can't source that statistic), jaws designed to "chew their prey into a paste to be fed to hornet larva," and an attitude towards the rest of the world that could best be described as, "when in doubt, attaaaaaaaaaaaack!"
I AM BEHIND YOU RIGHT. NOW.
Larval Japanese giant hornets, by the way, appear to have been designed by H. R. Giger.
AWWWWW. I WAS SUCH A CUTE KID.
All this said, although Japanese giant hornets may seem like gratuitously terrifying hellspawn to human beings, they're animals like any other. I try not to kill any animal I can help, so when one of these hornets showed up in the hallway outside my company lesson, I did my best to herd it out a window. (My students were no help at all. They wouldn't even leave the classroom.) Despite their reputation, the hornets don't randomly attack people unless they're a threat, so I was easily able to walk slowly down the hall and move it towards the outside. In fact, here's a person who managed to get a hornet literally to eat out of his hand without being stung.
THANK YOU FOR THE FLESH. IT WAS DELICIOUS.
I'm sure that the hornet was just lost and wanted to be outside, but alas! my plan backfired horrible. I could open the window, but not the screen on the other side. In the end I had no choice but to shut the window with the hornet trapped between the glass and the screen. There it will slowly starve to death, which makes me sad. I met an incredible new creature, and immediately destroyed it in the most horrible way possible.
How do you react to hornets? Are you foolhardy (like me), cautious, or terrified? You can diagnose yourself by your reaction to the images in this post!
—Matthew
PS:
SEE YOU NEXT TIME.
I mentioned a few months ago that I'd finally seen a tanuki in the wild, while driving home from Niihama. With that, I thought I'd seen all the animals I wanted to see in Japan. But I had forgotten about a very important one!
HELLO.
How could I forget the Japanese giant hornet, known as the "Great Sparrow-Bee" (オオスズメバチ) in Japanese? It's one of the largest hornets in the world, blessed with a stinger over a quarter of an inch long, the ability to fly at up to 25 miles per hour for 60 miles a day, according to this article the wing strength to lift up to six pounds, the terrifying efficiency to kill up to 40 honeybees (their favorite prey) per minute, a pheromonal marker they can apply to anything they want the rest of their hive to attack, a sting so excruciatingly powerful it generally requires hospitalization (and supposedly kills 40 people a year in Japan, although I can't source that statistic), jaws designed to "chew their prey into a paste to be fed to hornet larva," and an attitude towards the rest of the world that could best be described as, "when in doubt, attaaaaaaaaaaaack!"
I AM BEHIND YOU RIGHT. NOW.
Larval Japanese giant hornets, by the way, appear to have been designed by H. R. Giger.
AWWWWW. I WAS SUCH A CUTE KID.
All this said, although Japanese giant hornets may seem like gratuitously terrifying hellspawn to human beings, they're animals like any other. I try not to kill any animal I can help, so when one of these hornets showed up in the hallway outside my company lesson, I did my best to herd it out a window. (My students were no help at all. They wouldn't even leave the classroom.) Despite their reputation, the hornets don't randomly attack people unless they're a threat, so I was easily able to walk slowly down the hall and move it towards the outside. In fact, here's a person who managed to get a hornet literally to eat out of his hand without being stung.
THANK YOU FOR THE FLESH. IT WAS DELICIOUS.
I'm sure that the hornet was just lost and wanted to be outside, but alas! my plan backfired horrible. I could open the window, but not the screen on the other side. In the end I had no choice but to shut the window with the hornet trapped between the glass and the screen. There it will slowly starve to death, which makes me sad. I met an incredible new creature, and immediately destroyed it in the most horrible way possible.
How do you react to hornets? Are you foolhardy (like me), cautious, or terrified? You can diagnose yourself by your reaction to the images in this post!
—Matthew
PS:
SEE YOU NEXT TIME.
2016年06月13日
Rainy season
The rainy season is here, and I'm kind of sick of it already. I like rainy days sometimes, but when it happens everyday I get really depressed.
Also, the mosquitos are here again, and I hate mosquitos.
There has been some discussion lately about whether or not mosquitos are necessary - can we destroy all of the mosquitos without any negative repercussions? It's an interesting question - is there anything on earth that humans can just do without, or will we always end up hurting the world in some way when we eradicate some element of the wild world.
Really I don't know if there is an answer to that question. Maybe mosquitos serve some other purpose that we don't understand. Like in America when all of the wolves were killed off and deer populations exploded.
The world is huge, and wonderful, and too complex to be understood easily. But that's why I like it!
Also, the mosquitos are here again, and I hate mosquitos.
There has been some discussion lately about whether or not mosquitos are necessary - can we destroy all of the mosquitos without any negative repercussions? It's an interesting question - is there anything on earth that humans can just do without, or will we always end up hurting the world in some way when we eradicate some element of the wild world.
Really I don't know if there is an answer to that question. Maybe mosquitos serve some other purpose that we don't understand. Like in America when all of the wolves were killed off and deer populations exploded.
The world is huge, and wonderful, and too complex to be understood easily. But that's why I like it!
