A deadly ‘murder hornet’ killed a mouse at least twice its size in a matter seconds.
The Asian giant hornet – nicknamed the murder hornet – demonstrated just how lethal it was when it took easily took out a mouse with it’s venom.
Cell phone footage of the incident shows a mouse desperately trying to shake off a hornet latched to its side.
An Asian giant hornet, nicknamed the ‘murder hornet’ killed a mouse within one minute of stinging it with venom (pictured)
The two wrestled in a frantic battle, but the hornet managed to crawl onto the mouse’s back and continued to strike with its stinger.
At one point, the mouse managed to jerk away in a last feeble attempt at freedom.
In less than a minute, the poor mouse finally conceded and lay dead on the sidewalk.
Pictured: The hornet is able to overpower the mouse when it crawls on its back
Footage of the incident shows just how powerful the Asian giant hornet’s venom is
The Asian giant hornet simply flew away.
The large hornets are native to temperate and tropical climates in East Asia, where they kill around 50 people are year.
But since November 2019, there have been several sightings of the hornets on the west coast of North America. It’s unclear how they arrived.
Asian giant hornets are more than double the size of honeybees, and have a wingspan measuring more than three inches.
The insects also have a large stinger filled with venom that contains neurotoxin, which is capable of causing both cardiac arrest and anaphylactic shock.
Asian giant hornets are more than double the size of honeybees, and have a wingspan measuring more than three inches
Asian giant hornets have been spotted in the United States and Canada for the first time – sparking panic among members of the scientific community
Pictured: Two Asian giant hornets were placed on a notebook to show the large size of the insect
Beekeeper Conrad Bérubé told The New York Times he was recently attacked by a swarm of the ‘murder hornets’ on Vancouver Island.
‘It was like having red-hot thumbtacks being driven into my flesh,’ Bérubé stated, adding that he was left bleeding from the attack.
Bérubé was stung seven times and was lucky to be alive.
But while the hornets can be deadly to humans, entomologists are more concerned that they could kill of bee populations in North America.
The insects are ferocious and can decimate entire beehives in just hours.
Last November, a beekeeper in Washington state found ‘thousands and thousands’ of his honeybees with their heads torn off.
‘I couldn’t wrap my head around what could have done that,’ the keeper stated.
Asian giant hornets nest in the ground for most of the year, but are most active between July and November.
Now, entomologists are ’embarking on a full-scale hunt for the hornets’, before they breed and become widely established in North America.
‘This is our window, Chris Looney, an entomologist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture, told The Times.
While he has set out in the woods of Washington to trap the hornets, he says the task will be difficult, given the hornets can fly more than 20 miles an hour.
‘If we can’t do it in the next couple of years, it probably can’t be done,’ he stated.
The arrival of the ‘murder hornet’ in the US adds to a growing list of events that have dealt blows to Americans in 2020.
The year began with fears of an all out war with Iran after President Trump ordered an air missile strike to kill top General Qassem Soleimani in January.
This enraged Iranian officials who called for retaliation, and tensions between the two countries skyrocketed.
Pictured: a researcher holds a dead Asian giant hornet in Blaine, Washington, in photos released by the Washington State Department of Agriculture
Around this time, Americans were fiercely divided by politics as Trump appealed his impeachment ruling in Senate.
January also saw the first confirmed COVID-19 case enter America through Washington state.
A slow response helped the US amass the largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world.
The US has recorded 1,187,190 cases and a death toll of 68,597.
At the end of that month, sports fans around the world mourned the death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna ‘Gigi’ Bryant.
They died in a helicopter crash above Calabasas, California.