hornets - Formosahut forum

A few weeks ago i saw what i thought was just an ants' nest in a tree at the back of my place, but when it tripled in size in a few weeks, i began to get a bit concerned. A closer inspection revealed that it really is a hornets' nest. I have had previous encounters with the Asian giant hornet, known as tu fong in Chinese (ground hornet), but this is what they call hu tou fong, or tiger head hornet. Supposedly there are two kinds - one with an orange face and another which is all black - i've got the black ones. They are smaller than the tu fong, which is able to inject more venom, but apparently they make up for it other ways. For one thing, whereas the tu fong tend to attack singularly and not in a particularly organized fashion, these guys will swarm all over you and attack en masse. Secondly, and equally as disturbing, they can apparently spit venom, which they aim at the eyes. Goggles are and important part of the hunter's protective gear.

A-Fa, the guy who led the last expedition to catch the tu fong, has again stepped up and is coming back tonight, weather permitting, to catch them. It has to be done at night as that is when they are all back in the nest. Additionally, they are attracted to the light which makes it easier to catch them.

I have been told to turn off all my house lights as they will be attracted to any light, and i have also had to warn my neighbor as they will pick up the scent of any human in the vicinity of 300 metres and attack them once their nest has been disturbed. Still tossing up whether i am game to put on the clothes and film proceedings. Two things, the fact that i got stung doing that last time, and the idea of hundreds of them swarming over my body trying to find a way through the protective clothing are making me a bit nervous about the operation - we will see.

Wow! Those things scare me. I think I know the variety you're talking about; they're bigger than the tu fong, right? I'm assuming the tu fong is the one pictured below. I see others that do not have the yellow head, with some having what looks like a dark orange stripe on their body and orange on the face. They must be the hu tou fong you're referring to. I couldn't find a picture of one.

In any case, as much as I'd like to be there and help out with the extraction, I feel that in the name of scientific discovery I can play a better role by staying about 5K away with a cold beer to determine just how far the human voice can project itself when stung by one of these suckers.

Can you set up your camera on a tripod, pointed at the next, then record remotely from the safety of your home?

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I'm planning to suit up and get down there and film it, but don't know how long i will last or whether there is much point coz it needs to be done at night time and my night time vision on my handcam is not great. He has told me that they will swarm over my body - not looking forward to that part.

As far as i know, there are three dangerous varieties.
1. tu fong (ground hornet, Asian giant hornet) - builds its nest on the ground, orange and brown with an orange face. This is the largest hornet in the world. Don't know if there are differences between the Japanese variety and the Taiwan one, but they look similar - the picture you posted is the Asian giant hornet.

2. hu tou fong (tiger head hornet). Considerably smaller than the tu fong, but looks similar so far as coloring goes

3. hei hu tou fong (black tiger head hornet) Similar shape to no. 2 but no orange - almost looks like a large fly. Will swarm over a person that disturbs their nest, or even just wanders too close. Known to spit venom into the eyes. This is the kind that i have at present. Will attack within 300 m of nest.

All three have a rather fat body shape without the distinct head, thorax, abdomen divisions that you see with a wasp. There is also a fairly large, common hornet around here that is chocolate brown in color and does have that distinct separated shape - that is relatively harmless - at least not aggresive.

Have got some photos of the nest but my memory card reader is acting up again. Will put them up when i get it sorted.

Stay of Execution! Last minute postponement due to rain. Don't know who was more relieved - me or the hornets. [image]
This is a photo of some tu fong attacking a beehive in my backyard a couple of years ago. And a new born queen on the nest. [image]

Are you disappointed or relieved? Regarding the rain, This is the first time I've seen the Taiwan CWB issue an 'Extreme Heavy Rain Advisory'. (See attached) I guess they're learning how to cover their asses. They just started issuing such 'advisories'.

It looks like Sat or Sun is your only window in the near term to get that thing out. I might pop down to your area around then to get some firewood. (Well, OK, to take my motorcycle out for a ride on the coast and visit the beach. One sometimes needs a purpose.) If so, I'll try to stop by to view the nest.

I think Nalgae has the potential to dump a shitload of rain on us. It could stall after the Philippines, then turn slightly poleward. That could result in heavy rainfall, especially for SW Taiwan, but also for us here in the SE.

But I'm cross posting here, or committing some other horrible Internet protocol crime. It just goes to show that these issues are all related.

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Here's the nest - it's shape is slightly typhoon like. And it did survive all that rain that you correctly predicted as well as some surprisingly big wind gusts.

Had the grass cutter guy here today - he says he gets stung at least once a year and he is understandably wary of them. He says, the black tiger head is the most shon. He wouldn't, quite rightly, cut the grass near them in the day. Instead he waited till dark and i set him up with a headlamp and he did that area and got through unscathed. Anyway, he advised me to stay indoors for 7 days after the nest is removed. He says there will be some that escape and they will hang around and sting anything with a human scent that they come across anywhere in the vicinity.

Today i observed one buzzing around my house and squirting out a liquid - i assume this is a pheromome marking of some sort. They are fascinating, but quite scary creatures.

That's a good picture. I trust you took it using the zoom function.

Do these hornets have any color at all on their bodies? A bit of dark orange? Or are they completely black?

We have some here that are completely black except for a band of burnt orange on their bodies.

So, when's the big day? 300 meters is quite a distance. That would easily include the road, right?

the ones you refer to are either tiger heads (the yellow/orange variety) or the Asian giant hornet - the big ones - both have yellow/orange faces. They are unlikely to bother you if they are just out foraging for food, but keep your eyes open for a nest. As far as i know, the big ones, which nest on the ground, tend to build their nest in the mountains, so you should be ok so long as you don't go hiking. The other two are more likely to build in trees in near human habitation. If you stand outside and watch them just on evening, then you will see them making a 'bee-line' for home.

I am 1.3 km from the main road, though the road going up the hill to my place would be within the strike zone. We will warn all the neighbors

tonight was the night - it was pretty scary, especially in the beginning when the sentries launched the first wave of attack, they really do swarm over you, but i didn't get stung at least. Though the other two guys did. Plus one of them got some venom squirted into his eyes. He said that hurts more than the the sting. They didn't think the stings were too bad on the scale of things coz they had to penetrate through their protective clothing so they didn't get the full dose. Though the boss did say as he left that he could barely move his elbow so i suspect it was hurting a lot worse than he was making out. Tough guys. Not like me.
There were only two guys, so ended up being one of the workers pretty much. One thing i discovered was that apart from the dangerous and scary aspect, it's actually very hard work - exacerbated by the fact that you are wearing layers of protective clothing - we were all totally drenched in sweat by the end of it.
The next thing is to make sure i don't get stung in the next few days. There were quite a few that didn't get captured. i'd heard the next week was a dangerous period, but the boss said it would only be for a couple of days. Interestingly, when we came back up to the house with the catch, they said it was ok to turn the outside light on. About 5-6 followed us up and were flying around the light, but the boss said it was fine to take off our protective clothing, which we did coz, for one thing, we were all ready to expire from overheating, and they didn't attack us - they were still blaming the light apparently. However, when daylight comes it will be anything human. I'll check the video but i am not too hopeful as it's a night time operation and the night vision on my handycam is pretty crappy - i also missed the two most dramatic things - when the guy got squirted and when the tree branch that they climbed up and cut off and were planning to gently lower down with some attached ropes came suddenly crashing down above us in the dark - luckily no-one was directly under it.

You have more balls than I do... or maybe just more clothing. What an experience. I'd like to see the video. This could be the basis for a great short story. The characters, the atmosphere, time of day, etc. Maybe rather than writing a book, a collection of short stories is the way to go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzu2YHuwFAM

Here's the vid of black tiger head. Unfortunately, my cinematography skills begin and end with the subject matter, but anyway, it's still something.

Well done. That may very well be the first time such a Taiwan-specific task has been caught on video. How were the larvae?

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