It sounds like a 1960s Japanese si-fi ‘B’ movie plot but it’s true.

Rie (My better half) and the kids are in Japan staying with her parents. Well they have a Japanese Giant Hornet (or Wasp) problem. Sounds scary enough I hate normal wasps, then I did a bit of searching on the internet…

WTH! Those things are horrible.

You can read about these monsters here Wikipedia Article

Here is a video of them attacking a honey bee hive:

Interestingly this hive is not a native Japanese hive as the native Japanese honey bees know how to kill the giant hornets, they leave a gap to encourage the hornet to come into the hive then surround it, this raises the temperature to 47 degrees Celsius which kills the wasp in time.

Anyway back to the story Rie’s parent’s house was under siege but her Mother Setsuko wiped them out with a rolled up magazine. Just goes to show the power of the printed word.

And we learned a valuable lesson, keep on the good side of Rie’s Mother