A series of giant hornet attacks in central China have left twenty-eight people dead and hundreds injured.
The creatures have attacked citizens living in the rural areas of southern Shaanxi for the past three months, according to the Guardian. Victims told local paper China Business that the violent hornets chased after them for hundreds of yards, stinging them as many as 200 times. 18 citizens in the city of Ankang were killed from the stings alone, according to health official Zhou Yuan hong, who spoke with the Associated Press. People in the southern prefecture cities on Hanzhong and Shangluo also sustained injuries from hornet attacks.
The hornets' seriously toxic stings can lead to deathly allergic reactions and kidney failure. A spokesperson from Ankang's disease control center pushed for people in the affected areas to look for medical attention if they were stung more than 10 times by the hornets. Victims stung more than 30 times were told to go to emergency facilities immediately.
The hornet attack issue plagues the wooded area of these cities between May and as late as November, the Guardian reported. Ankang police stated that between 2002 and 2005, 36 people were killed, while 715 sustained injuries from stings. But perhaps because of recent warmer temperatures in the region, the insects' breeding patterns have grown stronger, allowing as many as a thousand hornets to live in one nest. This year, weather patterns have been especially harsh, while laborers have been expanding their work spaces, moving into locations where they might disrupt hornet communities. Deputy director of the Shaanxi Bee and Wasp Industry Association Li Jiuzhou said that the creatures only attack humans if they are agitated.
Over 300 hornet nests have been extracted from the land, but officials maintained that these attacks will most likely happen until the weather cools down.
One woman in her 50s told the Guardian that following a hornet attack, she was forced to spend nearly one month in a hospital, and still experienced the side effects brought on from over 200 stings. One man from her town died of renal failure, she reported.
