# Video: 30 wasps kill 30,000 honeybees. Very cool.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 16, 2004, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634 "2004-06-16T12:19:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/21 "2004-06-16T18:20:47Z")
Holy shit.
Do you suppose that there is a way to train some wasps to take out the Africanized killer bees that were rampaging through Mexico? It shouldn’t bee too hard…those hornets are friggin’ dominant!
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### Author:  [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/22 "2004-06-16T20:00:53Z")
Any of those bees named “Eric”?
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/23 "2004-06-16T20:08:16Z")
I don’t have sound on my PC either, so I don’t know if this information is in the unheard narration, but: what is the size scale here? If those honeybees are what I normally think of as honeybee size, then those hornets are as big as my thumb. That can’t be right… right?
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/24 "2004-06-16T20:11:21Z")
If I can train the wasps to do my bidding, then I shall rule the world.
However, I can’t get Chad & Todd and Bootsie to even return my calls.
So, the coup will have to wait.
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### Author:  [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/25 "2004-06-16T20:53:05Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#):
>
> Any of those bees named “Eric”?
Well, there was no shortage of half-bees after the battle… 😉
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/26 "2004-06-16T21:10:32Z")
I finally heard it with the sound. **Cervaise** , the narrator says the hornets are five times the size of a honeybee. Depending on the size of your hand, the hornets may well be as big as you fear. I know they’re as big as _my_ thumb!
Googling seems to show these are Asian giant hornets, and beekeepers in Japan are quite familiar with them and must take steps to protect their hives from decimation. Some sort of cage with netting only big enough to let honeybees pass through?
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### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/27 "2004-06-16T21:13:57Z")
> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> I don’t have sound on my PC either, so I don’t know if this information is in the unheard narration, but: what is the size scale here?
The bees are European Honeybees, a smaller species. The Giant Wasps are five times their size.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/28 "2004-06-16T21:17:37Z")
Actually, they were all named “Eric”.
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### Author:  [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/29 "2004-06-16T21:21:47Z")
Wow. Impressive.
I have to wonder if this was a setup, though. There were cameras all over that beehive (in the entrance, in the comb chamber), so I doubt that a passing naturalist with a half-dozen highspeed cameras saw this and caught a video. Were the wasps led to the hive? The truth must come out!
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### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/30 "2004-06-16T21:22:10Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#):
>
> The bees are European Honeybees, a smaller species. The Giant Wasps are five times their size.
And by “smaller”, I mean “Smaller than the Giant Honeybees” 😃 . But the bees in the video _are_ the common type you are used to. Unless you live in Asia, or India or something.
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### Author:  [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/31 "2004-06-16T21:37:10Z")
I’m somewhat disturbed by the way this video was made. The hive is clearly the type a bee farmer would use, but with cameras placed inside to film the carnage. So basically the thought behind this was, “Let’s unleash some giant wasps on this bee colony and watch the heads fly!” It’s one thing to set up a hidden camera in the wild to observe predation in a natural habitat, but deliberately forcing the situation seems wrong to me.
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### Author:  [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/32 "2004-06-16T21:58:09Z")
> [@sturmhauke](#):
>
> I’m somewhat disturbed by the way this video was made. The hive is clearly the type a bee farmer would use, but with cameras placed inside to film the carnage. So basically the thought behind this was, “Let’s unleash some giant wasps on this bee colony and watch the heads fly!” It’s one thing to set up a hidden camera in the wild to observe predation in a natural habitat, but deliberately forcing the situation seems wrong to me.
Wasps would not discriminate between wild and domestic hives if they have a coup in mind.
In a related comment to my earlier post, if these are European or US honeybees being kept in Asian wasp habitat, the video demonstrates how non-native species who have not had sufficient generations to co-evolve with the wasps (as the native “baking bees” have) are at risk of losing their fight for the ecological niche that the bee farmers put them in. European/American honeybees are easier to manage and produce more honey, but they aren’t very good and defending their turf, at least not in Asia.
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### Author:  [@Shaolinrabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shaolinrabbit)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/33 "2004-06-16T21:58:39Z")
> [@lno](#):
>
> I was thinking that _The Ride of the Valkyries_ would have been a good music choice for the initial onslaught.
“God I love the smell of honey in the morning!”
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### Author:  [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/34 "2004-06-16T22:00:36Z")
I have a stupid question.
Are hornets and wasps the same thing?
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/35 "2004-06-16T22:04:50Z")
Talk about your buzz-kill!
Thank you! I’m here all week. Tip your waitress!
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/36 "2004-06-16T22:10:21Z")
😕 I’m getting an error saying the file is corrupt. Does anyone have another link?
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### Author:  [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/37 "2004-06-16T22:11:22Z")
[http://cyberbee.msu.edu/biology/ch1/](http://cyberbee.msu.edu/biology/ch1/)
> [@](#):
>
> In A. cerana, workers also ventilate their hive with their head toward outside (opposite of Western bees which fan with their head toward entrance). A. cerana also defend against a giant Asian wasp by forming a cluster around the enemy, and producing heat (around 45C) to literally ‘cook’ the wasp to death.
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### Author:  [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/38 "2004-06-16T22:28:33Z")
I wasn’t able to view it. Just the “Windows Media” screen. My computer didn’t prompt me to download anything or notify me that it was missing the necessary software…
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/39 "2004-06-16T23:02:53Z")
> [@Zebra](#):
>
> Am I the only person who is afraid to watch this?
>
> I mean it sounds cool and all but bees and wasps freak me out and I don’t know if I want to watch.
The calf-stumbling-into-the-fire-ant-mound-video is worse.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-30-wasps-kill-30-000-honeybees-very-cool/250634/40 "2004-06-16T23:49:08Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#):
>
> Although I think the dubbed-in aircraft sounds and screams were a bit much.
See, I thought that part was _hilarious_, along with the “_crunch!_” sound when the bee-heads got bitten off.
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