JAPANESE BUGS FROM HELL

So I'm making a post about this due to some recent events that scared the living daylights out of me. This is one aspect of Japan that I'm not that happy with and that is the scary animals that live here. Seriously, the creepy crawlies that reside here make Belgium look like heaven on earth!

As most people are aware of, I love animals. More importantly, I love all animals, regardless of what they look like or do to humans. I don't even try to kill mosquitoes when they're stinging me. The problem I have here in Japan though is that some of these bugs are actually really dangerous (and also quite common I have found out)


First up is the Giant Japanese Hornet:

















I don't think I can be afraid of the little bees in Europe anymore after this. They are five times the size of ours and A LOT more agressive and dangerous!

These things are HUUUUUUUGE!!!!! I'm not kidding. At first I didn't believe the stories about how big they were but I recently encountered a dead one and it was almost the size of my palm!

In the last few days there have been several stories of these creatures finding their way into the dorm common room and people's rooms and this really freaks me out. Not just bacause of their size but I turned to Wikipedia last night to read up on their venom and:

The Japanese giant hornet is large and can be very aggressive if provoked. It has a venom which is injected by the 6.25 mm-long stinger and attacks the nervous system and damages tissues of its victims.[2] Tests with mice find the venom not to be the most lethal, having an LD50 of 4.0 mg/kg, which compares to the deadliest wasp venom (to mice) by weight of Vespa luctuosa at 1.6 mg/kg. The potency of the sting is due to the relatively large amount of venom injected.[4] Being stung is extremely painful and can require hospitalization. Asian giant hornet stings can cause anaphylactic shock in allergic people, and can still be lethal to people who are not allergic, provided the dose is sufficient.

SEND HELP!

 

the venom is potent enough to dissolve human skin tissue

The Japanese Giant hornet is called Ousuzumebachi in Japanese which translates too giant sparrow bee. Not only are they ridiculous in size, they are also very smart. The venom of the thing contains pheromones that signal other hornets to come and attack as well and once these little guys start attacking, they. don't. stop. This is how people die from them and this is how these hornets manage to kill off an entire hive of regular bees in under three hours. To feed their own young, they find a beehive, kill of all the bees inside it (30 of these hornets can destroy a hive of 30 000 bees) and feed the dead bees' larva to their young.

If you want to see what these things are capable of, watch this video I found. It's really interesting!! Also, this shows the size of these hornets really well so if you're not too scared of the imagery, I really recommend watching this!

So, bearing all of this in mind, I think I'm never leaving my room again. 

I'm only joking, but seriously though, I'm really really terrified of these things. I don't want to die just yet.

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The second thing I want to mention is the Mukade or Giant Centipede. I think I may have mentioned this one before. The first time I saw one in real life I had no idea of how dangerous this creature is. I was at a shrine in Kyoto with my friends and all of a sudden I hear some people freaking out so I run over and see this huge, black centipede in the middle of the path. Me, being the tourist I am, scoots closer to take a picture of this strange new thing I'd come upon but I was immediately grabbed by a Japanese friend whose reaction went a little bit along the lines of: "are you insane????????????"

So the Mukade is a very dangerous animal. If it bites you, you better get your butt to a hospital because in the case of a very potent bite, you might die. Apparently, the sting causes a lot of swelling and intense pain.Oh and if the picture doesn't convince you, these things can grow up to 38 centimeters!

I'm talking about them again because they've been popping up a lot recently. I've heard of two incidents of Mukade getting into the dorm or trying to get into the dorm. Also, a guy on the first floor found one in his room once (which makes me really happy I live on the third floor).

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Aside from these two creatures of my nightmares. here are some other typical Japanese bugs I've encountered in the last month (that I'm not terrified of haha): 

the Japanese stinkbug. These guys are also pretty large. I was surprised to see one on the stairs in the dorm a few weeks ago. I wondered if it was some strange kind of cockroach at first but another resident told me it was a stink bug and that if I were to come too close to it, it would stink up the whole dorm.

The Gejigeji or Japanese house centipede. Unlike the Mukade, these centipedes are totally harmless. They just look really freaky. I kind of really want to see one in real life. Maybe not in my cramped little room though because that would probably give me a huge scare. But still, I think this guy looks really, really cool!

The Jourou spider. I talked about these colorful beasts before in the first months of my stay in Japan. They were everywhere back then and they're starting to pop up again now. I'm not scared of them anymore now. They live in bushes and trees and never try to come inside the house. On top of that, I think they'd only bite you if you try to mess with them so I think actually getting bitten by them isn't likely going to happen. So even if they're pretty poisonous, it's all good. Plus, they are really pretty to look at if you ask me.

Alrighty!

I'm going to leave it at that. I have to leave for my job in a bit. I am still terrified that I'll come across a hornet. I'll do my best to survive the wildernis that is Osaka. If I don't make it back home, it has been nice knowing you all.

BYE!

(most of the pictures shown are not mine)