Original subtitles

The Tottori Prefecture

is one of the most remote stretches

of wilderness in all of Japan.

And mysteriously hidden deep within

its fog-covered mountains, a world of giants

stalk this ancient landscape.

For days, we searched in every place possible.

Yet, much to our chagrin, it seemed

as if an encounter with Japan's most notorious insect

would elude us.

Then, on our second-to-last in country, when it seemed as

if all hope was lost, the very encounter

I had been searching for presented itself

in the form of a giant hornet.

Hornet. Hornet, hornet, hornet.

Hornet. Hornet, right there.

Right there. Right there.

Right in the edge of that leaf.

Look at that.

It's huge. Right there.

Right there.

Right there.

Got it. Hornet.

Hornet.

Giant Hornet. 100%.

You got one? Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Hold on a second. Where.

Let me see. Yes.

Right there. Right there.

Right there. Oh!

Dude, you got it. - Got it.

Hold on.

I'm going to put this GoPro down.

Wow, that is a big hornet.

Where is it? Where is it?

Hold on. It's right here.

It's right here. - Right there.

Right there, right there. Wow.

Can you trap it up against the front of the net?

Where is it?

It's tangled up with all these plants.

Where, where, where?

Look, look, look.

It's biting right through the net.

You could barely see it.

Here. Let's do this.

I got to get it in the capsule.

Let's get it in the capsule.

Yeah. - Hold on a second.

Here-- You need help?

Hold the end of that.

Hold the end of that.

Yeah.

You guys will be able to see a lot

better if I get it into here.

Hold on a second.

I don't want to get stung through the net.

OK.

Ooh.

OK.

Almost got it.

You're sure it's a giant?

I'm 100% certain, dude.

It's huge.

There's no way this is anything else.

Look at, it's biting onto the net.

It'll probably chew right through there if it could.

Don't get stung yet.

Got it. Got it.

Got it. Got it.

Got it.

Let's get a look at it.

Oh, oh.

Look at that.

Wow.

That is it.

Yup.

You got one.

Man!

How about that, right?

Oh my goodness.

Look at how big it is.

My hand is shaking.

How'd you find it?

It was just on top of the plants.

That's all.

I saw it was about ready to take off.

And I was like, I don't know if I got the shot on the GoPro.

Just dropped it into the dirt.

I just had to make sure that I got it.

I swiped down right on top of those plants, got the plants,

and got the hornet at the same time.

It is huge.

Wow.

I guess that's why they call it the giant hornet.

Man.

OK, well, we're starting to lose light.

But we definitely still have time to get the scene.

Let's hike back up this way, find a flat spot.

Yes.

We have got the Japanese Giant Hornet.

Man.

Oh yeah.

There it is.

The Japanese Giant Hornet.

And I would say, the giant is an understatement.

Not since the tarantula hawk have we encountered

a more intimidating insect.

Look at that beast.

From its head to its thorax, down its legs

which end in grappling hooked feet, and then,

of course, that enormous pulsating abdomen.

Everything about this creature screams

run in the other direction.

Yet, here we are, on the doorstep

of the executioner wasp.

What we're going to find out today

is just how painful the sting of this hornet really is.

Now, on the insect sting pain index, it only ranks as a two.

Can you believe that?

On a scale of one to four, this is only a two.

Maybe its bark is bigger than its bite.

Or in this case, I should say, its sting.

Today, I'm going to be stung by the largest

hornet in the world. All right.

What we're going to do now is get a couple

of really cool b-roll shots.

I'm going to walk around, address the coyote pack.

And then, we're going to enter the sting zone.

Phew.

I am nervous.

Whoo.

The Japanese Giant Hornet

is considered to be one of the largest

stinging insects in the world.

This nightmarish creature is armed

with a 6.25 millimeter stinger.

And it injects a venom known as mandaratoxin in a high dosage

that can destroy tissue and attack the nervous system

of its victim.

And while a single sting is not likely to be deadly,

over 30 people die every year in Japan

from taking multiple stings.

In most cases, these deaths come as a result

of anaphylactic shock.

But no matter how you break it down,

this sting is incredibly dangerous.

Whoo.

That is a big hornet.

That is a huge hornet.

The biggest hornet on the face of the planet.

And I have a feeling that the sting is going to be intense.

Now, it's rumored that the sting of this insect can kill you.

Guys, a single sting is not going to kill me unless I

go into anaphylactic shock.

Now, if you were to be swarmed by 30 or 40 bees

and be stung repetitively, yes, there

is a good chance you will die.

I've also heard that the venom is

going to cook a hole in my arm.

Not exactly looking forward to that.

But it all depends how my body reacts to the venom.

Everybody reacts differently.

You guys have to remember that.

So I'm going to go through with this.

I know a lot of you are probably running

to the comments section right now saying, Coyote,

you don't have to do this. You don't have to do this.

I do have to do this.

We have climbed the insect sting pain index.

And this is the only one, guys, the only one

that I think we just have to find out how bad that sting is.

It's so big.

It's such a dominant character throughout all

of Japanese culture.

And certainly, when it comes to the insect sting pain index,

I don't think we can leave this stone unturned.

So if you guys are ready, I think the crew is ready.

It is time to enter the sting zone

with the Japanese Giant Hornet.

Whoo.

Here we go.

Oh.

Warning.

Never attempt to recreate the following scene,

as a sting from the Giant Hornet has the potential to be lethal.

All right, guys.

This is it the moment that you all showed up for.

Now, before we go through with the sting,

first let's talk a little bit about the safety.

We do have an epinephrine pen with us.

Now, a single sting from this hornet should not kill me.

However, like most stings, you can go into anaphylactic shock.

It just depends how your body reacts to the venom.

I should be just fine.

I will experience some pain, discomfort, and potentially

some pretty extreme swelling.

But I shouldn't die from a single sting.

I do have my entomology forceps with me.

What we're going to do is get the insect into the net.

And then I'm going to get it under control--

same way we've done all the sting videos in the past.

Are you guys ready?

Sounds good. Are you ready to do this?

Here we go.

All right.

All right.

Net coming up.

This is probably one of the most risky bits.

We do not want to lose the hornet.

And I do not want to get stung too early.

I'm going to gently stand up here.

Put the basin of the capsule at the bottom of the net.

And hornet is going live inside the net.

Let me get the platform out.

Here we go.

Platform is out of the net.

And come on guy.

Out you go.

All right.

Hornet is out of the capsule.

There we go.

So I'm going to keep the capsule close.

You guys know the goal is to always

get the capsule back on top of the insect

before it flies away.

I'll place that there for just a second.

Whoo.

And now, it gets intense.

I have to figure out the best way to pick up this giant.

I want to grab right onto the back of its thorax

behind the wings so I have full control.

All right, you guys got a good shot.

And I'm going to slightly have to maneuver

myself just a little bit here.

Oh.

It is not happy.

This is one angry hornet.

Hold on.

Hold on.

I got to get it.

Oh, it's turning.

Hold on a second.

My hand is shaking.

Aah.

Control your nerves, Coyote.

Control your nerves.

My heart is racing a million miles a second,

and I can't keep my hands still to grab onto the insect.

Hold on.

Ah.

The hornet is actually biting onto the forceps.

Actually, I'm going to pin it like this.

OK.

I've got it.

I've got it.

Perfect hold.

That's what we want.

Phew.

Wow.

All right.

Everyone just take a moment to soak this in.

That is an enormous hornet.

Look at its abdomen pulsating.

And you look at the mandibles.

Those are used for chomping.

I think I may also take a bite during this video

as well, which I'm kind of afraid of.

And if you zoom in on the legs, you can see that they

have these little hooks.

They almost look like grappling hooks.

And one thing that also scares me-- there

is the chance it's going to latch onto my arm

and sting more than once.

Phew.

I can't stop my hand from shaking.

I haven't been this nervous since the tarantula hawk.

Sure you want to do this?

Yeah.

There's no turning back now. All right.

You guys ready?

Ready if you are.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

And I'm about to enter the sting zone

with the Japanese Giant Hornet.

One, two-- here we go-- three.

Aah!

Oh, This thing's stuck in my arm.

Oh.

Ooooh.

How bad is it?

Oh man, wave of dizziness really quick.

Ah.

Ooh.

Oh, searing pain.

Absolute searing pain.

There's where the stinger went in.

Right there.

Did you not see how slow the sting was?

Oh!

I see blood.

Aah.

Oh, my gosh.

Aaah.

Aah.

Oh my gosh.

I know it's tough to describe it.

You got to describe it for us. What's it like?

OK. OK.

OK.

My hand is completely seized up and locked in place.

Just like the tarantula hawk, look at the swelling that's

beginning to form on my arm.

Forearm is incredibly taut.

Only about 45 seconds have gone by.

Careful not to edge,

by the way.

Let's move it over there, and get over here.

Back up.

Back up, back up, back up, back up.

Aah.

You got to tell us if you're in trouble.

Are you going to be OK?

When the stinger went into my arm, I had this like wave--

like a wave came over me.

And I got super dizzy.

Almost didn't feel what was happening.

And then, the pain just was like immediate--

immediately searing.

Aah.

Oh.

Look at your arm.

Oh my gosh.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Wow.

You are swelling like crazy.

He's swelling up bad.

Aah.

Hang on a second.

Let's put a circle around where the swelling site is.

Yeah.

To see the progression of it.

Aah.

This is the outer, and then, that

is the immediate right there.

Aaah.

Oh man.

Aah.

Not a two.

Far surpasses the tarantula hawk.

Far surpass the tarantula hawk.

Aah.

Here, here, here.

Look at this.

If I turn my arm sideways, look at the welt on my--

oh, oh, oh, oh, OK.

Can't touch near it.

Sharp shooting pain if I touch near it.

Wow.

Oh my gosh.

I can see that your wrist is starting to swell.

Do you want to take your watch off?

Need help? - I got it.

I got it. I got it.

Oh. Yeah.

That's better. - Oh.

No relief yet.

It's just a matter of harnessing the pain,

controlling the level of pain.

And rolling around on the ground and screaming at this point

really isn't doing me any good.

All right.

Let's cut cameras and come back in about five minutes.

Let me get a drink of water.

All right, man.

Well, I could definitely see that--

Don't touch it. I'm not.

I'm not going to touch you.

I just want to show everyone at home,

the swelling has completely gone outside of these initial marks.

I mean, and I don't think you're out of the woods yet.

I think that's going to swell a whole lot worse.

Yeah.

We are only 20 minutes in at this point.

20 minutes since that stinger went deep into my forearm.

You could see the discoloration in my skin

there, the massive goose egg that has formed.

The venom has worked its way up my arm.

Can you show us the lump?

Can you hold your arm up at all?

Oh my goodness.

Wow.

I'm sure you guys want to know how this feels

as compared to some of the other top insects on the sting index.

It blows the cow killer out of the water.

No comparison.

It definitely trumps the tarantula hawk.

When we're talking bullet ant, I would definitely

say that at this point, it is on par.

And in just one month, the episode

you have all been waiting for--

the sting of the executioner wasp

will determine who the true king of sting really is.

We're going to monitor this sting for the next 24 hours

and see what happens.

I can promise you this much.

I've got a world of pain ahead of me for the next few hours.

All right.

Let's get an outro and get back down to civilization.

You ready?

Yep.

I'm Coyote Petersen.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see on the next adventure.

Man.

Oh, that was a bad one.

All right guys.

Right now, we are on location in West Virginia.

And this big glorious bush behind me is known as a Lilac.

It's not currently in bloom.

But its bark and its sap are incredibly

valuable to a number of different wasp species,

including hornets.

And we have seen a very large hornet this morning.

Is it possible that there are giant hornets in West Virginia?

I'm going to catch one, and we're going to find out.

So Mario, what is it that we know about hornets?

Well, we know that they're

actually a type of wasp.

In fact, all hornets are wasps.

But not all wasps are hornets.

Oh, there's one.

There's one flying around up there.

Impossible to see on this small camera.

But boy, are they big.

So what they're doing right now is actually stripping the bark

so that they can take it, chew it up, and build

the walls of their paper nests.

Oh, there's one. There's one.

There's one.

Man, they are all over these Lilac bushes.

They're higher up though.

Oh man.

Here's one right here out in the sun on this branch.

See it right here?

Oh.

Oh, I missed it.

Oh, now they're angry.

Hold on.

Don't move.

Oh, that really made 'em angry.

Coming right at you.

Look out, there's one. There's one.

Here, take this. Take this.

Take this.

Moving up through the branches right now.

I got it. I got it.

I got it. Got it.

I got it. I got it.

Yes.

Oh, I thought I missed it.

I've got it.

Check that out.

Wow, that's a big hornet.

Yes.

Here.

Let me give you this.

OK.

We have got what may be West Virginia's Giant Hornet.

But is it an invader?

OK, let me see if I can get it inside the bug capsule here.

Yes.

Look at that beast.

Oh.

That is a very, very intimidating insect

right there.

All right.

Let's get this bug up into a controlled setting,

properly identify and determine--

is this an invasive murder hornet here in West Virginia?

Here we are again.

Coyote Peterson, sitting at a table, with an EpiPen,

a pair of entomology forceps, and a stinging insect

inside of a container.

It's a big bug.

There's no question about it.

It's a hornet.

But the question is, is that an invasive murder hornet?

Now, in 2020, the giant hornet was supposedly

invading the United States.

I've been very vocal in saying that this

is not likely to happen.

And recently, we also showed you another large

flying stinging insect here in the United

States, the cicada killer.

That species is a sand wasp.

And they're famous for killing cicadas, not humans.

This right here is not a cicada killer.

In fact, it is a true hornet--

a very large hornet.

And there are a number of different hornet species

here in the United States.

And like Mario said earlier, all hornets are technically wasps,

but not all wasps are hornets.

Now, if you were to go out into your backyard

and see one of these things flying around,

it sounds like an Apache helicopter.

And I guarantee you, you're probably going to be thinking

to yourself, oh my gosh, I saw the news stories or I,

saw in Brave Wilderness that this

is what a murder hornet is.

It's got to be a murder hornet.

Guys, it's not a murder hornet.

It is a big hornet.

In fact, the largest hornet in the United States,

known as the European Hornet.

Now, what's unique about this hornet

species specifically is that it's

one of the species that builds its paper nest above ground.

Oftentimes, true hornets build their nests underground.

But this one will collect the sticky sap

from different trees, rip off pieces of bark,

chew it up in its mandibles, and take it back to its paper nest

to continue building that structure.

Now, if you come across one of these nests,

you do not want to try and destroy it.

Don't spray it with spray.

Don't try to light it on fire.

Because if these insects recognize

that their home is being disturbed, they will attack.

And they will attack with force.

So what I want to do now is get this insect out

of the plastic container and take a look at some

of its more unique features.

To do that, I'm going to have to get it in the net

and pick it up with the forceps.

I'm going to give it a little space on the backside there.

Perfect.

Now, it's down into the lower section.

And I can do this, which will cause

it to walk up and into the net.

Go up.

Go up.

There we go.

Plastic container comes down.

Boom.

Insect is secured.

Look at that.

Worked like a charm.

These forceps-- got to be real careful to get

the bug right on its thorax so that I don't injure its wings.

Got it.

That's a good hold right there.

That is the European Hornet.

Perfect hold, right on the thorax.

And boy, you can see that stinger going.

Definitely not an insect that you would want to be stung by.

Well, let's take a look at some of the coolest anatomical

features of this hornet.

It has a very robust body structure,

and its exoskeleton is incredibly strong.

So I'm not causing any injury to the bug

as I hold it inside of these entomology forceps.

Now, the head is massive.

Big eyes.

These creatures have great eyesight,

especially during the day.

You'll notice those mandibles up front are very intimidating--

capable of grasping and holding onto the prey items

that they bring back to their brood of larva.

As you look at the legs, they almost

appear as if they have grappling hooks on the ends of them.

That allows them to pick up things

like grasshoppers and cicadas to carry them back to their nests.

Also allows them to easily grip onto the branches

as they're crawling around in trees,

eating up sap, and stripping bark.

And look at that abdomen.

If you look really closely, you can

see it's covered in a bunch of fine little hairs.

And look at the way that it pulses.

And it's pretty intimidating.

That black and yellow coloration basically is

a warning that I am venomous.

You don't want to get stung by me.

And this is actually a female.

Remember, it's only the females that have stingers.

That is a modified ova posture used for laying eggs.

Now, the sting of a hornet like this

is definitely going to be painful.

It ranks as a two on the insect sting pain index.

And it would be a multitude of stings

that you would really need to worry about.

A single sting is not likely to do you much damage.

But this is not necessarily an insect

you need to be afraid of.

Remember, they are not going to attack you

and sting unless you intentionally disturb a nest.

And the nests are very obvious.

They're very big.

Like gray in coloration.

Looks like a big papier-mache art structure.

So if you leave the nest be, your chances

of interacting negatively with one of these hornets

or a bunch of these hornets is very unlikely.

Admirer from a safe distance, and it's

actually a pretty cool sight.

All right.

I know you guys are all excited.

And you're thinking, all right.

Coyote's got the insect in the entomology forceps.

He's going to stretch his arm out on the table,

place it down on his forearm, and induce a sting.

I told you guys, after the cicada killer,

I was done with stings.

I came out of retirement for one and only.

That was the cicada killer.

The European Hornet, I am not going to be stung by.

So I'm sorry to disappoint all of you

that clicked on this video to see me stung by this hornet.

The purpose in catching it was to show you just how big

and how cool it was and to also prove that this is

not an invasive giant hornet.

This is not the murder hornet that you guys have been

reading about in the media.

You can't believe the hype.

In fact, humans have been living alongside stinging insects

since the dawn of mankind.

These creatures do not want to sting

us unless we try to interact with them

or destroy their homes.

And the last thing I'm going to do to prove that this insect

does not want to sting me is to actually place it

into the palm of my hand and let it fly

off back into the ecosystem.

I'm Coyote Petersen.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next location.