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Comment by samfriedman | Hacker News Reader

Pretty sure if I found one of my hives covered in those giant hornets, it would be time to find a new backyard hobby.

Asian giant hornets ain't nothing to fuck with. Their stings can kill a man -- and if just one makes it into a hive it can turn the hive into a scene from insect Attack On Titan. Japanese honeybees can deal with one hornet -- with considerable casualties -- but if it brings friends the whole colony is fucked. European honeybees -- fucked from the beginning.

there is always a bigger fish

> European honeybees — f’ed from the beginning

Just LOL!! So true. #evolution

Oh god those are terrifying. I don’t know if I have ever seen a more frightening animal tbh. They look very durable, fast, and the stinger is huge.

The article suggested honeybees kill them by surround them and vibrating to cause the hornets to overheat and die.

That is also fascinating. How does that ever evolve.

A clump of bees is very warm, picking up a swarm is relatively low risk and the heat is definitely the first thing you notice, though done wrong it could also be the last.

It’s interssting that they turned a survival technique into killing method.

Like how warm? How hot do you imagine the hornets get

They keep their hives at about 35C, which is white noticeable when you open them up. Same goes for big clumps of bees. Angry ones balling a invader are considerably hotter it seems, and this article mentions 49C. I’ve seen other article noting that bees die at about 51, while hornets die at a fractionally lower temperature. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12649-honeybees-gang-...

Kind of like a fever, heating your body up to fight off infections.

Or, in a chemical sense, chemo vs. cancer.

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