Tourists really getting stung in Thailand amid fears someone could die

[webfact]

Tourists really getting stung in Thailand amid fears someone could die

 

Picture: Daily News

 

The authorities are finally acting after tourists in Krabi in the south of Thailand were repeatedly getting stung.

 

On this occasion the culprits were not unscrupulous operators or rip off merchants - just some locals going about their usual - but very unwelcome - business.

 

Daily News reported on a huge hornets nest above the Ao Nang footpath.

 

Three Chinese tourists have been taken to hospital so far after being stung along with many locals and the authorities are finally acting.

 

There are fears that if someone had an allergic reaction they could die.

 

The nest - 40 centimeters around and about 50 cm long - is four meters up a power pole.

 

It has steadily grown in size and when someone threw a rock at it the hornets just got madder and repaired their home enlarging it to the size today.

 

There are lots of restaurants and hotels in the immediate vicinity.

 

One restaurant owner Anuphat Chuayprasit, 37, said that the problem was particularly bad in the evening and three tourists and many nearby residents had been stung.

 

On Saturday pest control arrived and fired 50 mothballs into the nest with a catapult.

 

It is hoped that this will solve the problem that will be reviewed in the next few days.

 

Source: Daily News

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-10-09

[Nong Khai Man]

Mothballs ??? 

[NCC1701A]

"On Saturday pest control arrived and fired 50 mothballs into the nest with a catapult."

 

 

[bornredi]

thais love to eat these hornets there worth a lot 
i can not believe no one has taken the nest 

[lonewolf99]

Somebody threw a rock at it........!!! Obviously the expression stirring up a hornets nest is not known in LoS.

 

I have been stung twice by these types of Hornet. Once badly on the hand, it is a strange sensation, throbbing, massive swelling, terrible itchiness for about 3 days.

Then wait for this...!!!  2 weeks later to the exact day the sensations comes back again. My ex Thai GF's father told me this would happen and I was a bit dismissive

until he was proven right. The itch is the worst bit, you want to tear the skin off.  Nasty.

  

Edited October 9, 2017 by lonewolf99
spelling

[Borzandy]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The authorities are finally acting after tourists in Krabi in the south of Thailand were repeatedly getting stung

You have more chances getting stung by a Thai than by an insect.

[johnnybangkok]

I got stung by a bee once..................$50 for a pot of honey!!

[masuk]

54 minutes ago, Borzandy said:

You have more chances getting stung by a Thai than by an insect.

You are so right:

 

My score to date   -   Thais 2    wasps   0

[Inepto Cracy]

Very interesting indeed. I have watched these same Asian Killer Wasps building a nest across from my house since 24th December 2016. The nest started off as a fist sized ball. It grew steadily untill two weeks ago, when it was finally removed.

Phuket officials ??? came to see the house on three different occasions and tut, tut tutted their way back to their offices.

F A got done about the nests removal.

The nest in total height was just over a metre tall. The wasps were approx 6 1/2 cms in length.

The nest was removed by setting on fire to it at night and taking the whole thing down. See photos attached.

Pity about all the electrical wires obscuring part of the picture.

These Asian Killer Wasps are already causing deaths in China, France and have also begun causing big problems in Wales too.

Their main danger to the eco systems around the world, is that they destroy honey bees hives and nests. Honey bees are the plants, flowers etc main pollinators.

Shooting mothballs into the nest, will only cause the wasps inside the nest to build a covering of nesting spit and paper, to cover the smell. BUT then they will go onto overdrive, increasing the size of the nest, approx by ten cms per month.

I am no expert on this matter, but I did observe the wasps progress every day.

 

 

[pookiki]

I had never seen one of these nests until I went on holiday to Sri Lanka.  From the outside, the nests are works of art.  I was not aware of the lethal nature of these insects bites until I read this article.

Edited October 9, 2017 by pookiki

[pookiki]

[Bob12345]

Found one in our local moobaan also. Called the fire department who came to take a look and they said they would come back after dark when the hornets get less active.

 

Next morning the bushes and the nest were burnt with little yellow and black bodies lying everywhere.

 

Thumbs up for the local fire department.

[kurtmartens]

42 minutes ago, Inepto Cracy said:

The nest was removed by setting on fire to it at night and taking the whole thing down.

 

 

 

Same here at our house in Chiangmai.  Father-in-law came by at night and set fire to the nest (went up like a torch) - and then he had a nice snack of wasp larvae.

[Krataiboy]

6 hours ago, bornredi said:

thais love to eat these hornets there worth a lot 
i can not believe no one has taken the nest 

You mean the grubs, one assumes. They're pretty fat and juicy.

[Hooliganzone]

1 hour ago, johnnybangkok said:

I got stung by a bee once..................$50 for a pot of honey!!

$50...You really did get stung but not by the bee. 

[lvr181]

6 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

"On Saturday pest control arrived and fired 50 mothballs into the nest with a catapult."

 

 

The local authorities have the same mentality!

[XJ650]

They should have called some people from real Thailand like people in Chiang Rai. 

 

Here they took away a nest from our garden and it was free because the nest was worth like 1500 baht.

 

 

 

[lvr181]

10 minutes ago, XJ650 said:

They should have called some people from real Thailand like people in Chiang Rai. 

 

Here they took away a nest from our garden and it was free because the nest was worth like 1500 baht.

 

 

 

Not wanting to sound ignorant  but where is the 'value' in the hornets nest?

[Grumpy Duck]

Once when doing geologic work in Calif the geologist I was working with was swarmed by hornets. They can sting more than once. 

These insects made their nest in the dry clay soil and got pissed when I knocked over a tree close by. 

They did not bother me as I was surrounded by diesel fumes but when I got off the machine to help the geologist I got swarmed also. Not fun!

[chrissables]

7 hours ago, bornredi said:

thais love to eat these hornets there worth a lot 
i can not believe no one has taken the nest 

They take the larvae to eat, not the hornets. Their sting hurts so much! As big as hypodermic needles and i was bleeding after an attack!  

[lvr181]

In the past (in my country) I have disposed of hornets nests by first steam blasting them with a wide angle steam gun - this soaks the wasps as they exit their nest and they don't or can't attack you and then a powerful steam blast from a narrow nozzle destroys the nest completely. YMMV

 

 

Edited October 9, 2017 by lvr181
Additional wording

[swissbie]

51 minutes ago, XJ650 said:

They should have called some people from real Thailand like people in Chiang Rai. 

 

Here they took away a nest from our garden and it was free because the nest was worth like 1500 baht.

 

 

 

They do it exactly the same way here in the deep south, nearly 2000km from Chiang Rai..

[drtreelove]

4 hours ago, Inepto Cracy said:

Very interesting indeed. I have watched these same Asian Killer Wasps building a nest across from my house since 24th December 2016. The nest started off as a fist sized ball. It grew steadily untill two weeks ago, when it was finally removed.

The original post is most likely about Tiger Wasps, common in Thailand. And dangerous enough...

But Giant Asian Hornets are another story. -- The leading cause of animal related death in Japan I learned from a documentary on NatGeoWild or Animal Planet. And working their way west across China. 

 

http://gawker.com/this-hornet-will-be-the-last-thing-you-see-before-you-d-1428724767

[0815]

9 hours ago, bornredi said:

thais love to eat these hornets there worth a lot 
i can not believe no one has taken the nest 

A nest is on power pole next to my garden.
Around the same size.
I went to the authorities 4 times already. No reaction - still busy on fb...

[Inepto Cracy]

4 hours ago, Inepto Cracy said:

Very interesting indeed. I have watched these same Asian Killer Wasps building a nest across from my house since 24th December 2016. The nest started off as a fist sized ball. It grew steadily untill two weeks ago, when it was finally removed.

Phuket officials ??? came to see the house on three different occasions and tut, tut tutted their way back to their offices.

F A got done about the nests removal.

The nest in total height was just over a metre tall. The wasps were approx 6 1/2 cms in length.

The nest was removed by setting on fire to it at night and taking the whole thing down. See photos attached.

Pity about all the electrical wires obscuring part of the picture.

These Asian Killer Wasps are already causing deaths in China, France and have also begun causing big problems in Wales too.

Their main danger to the eco systems around the world, is that they destroy honey bees hives and nests. Honey bees are the plants, flowers etc main pollinators.

Shooting mothballs into the nest, will only cause the wasps inside the nest to build a covering of nesting spit and paper, to cover the smell. BUT then they will go onto overdrive, increasing the size of the nest, approx by ten cms per month.

I am no expert on this matter, but I did observe the wasps progress every day.

 

 

Actually I wanted to edit my post to read Hornets, not wasps, but the edit button has now been taken off the site? Please read the word hornets where I have written wasps incorrectly. Thank you.

[The Deerhunter]

We have them in various colours on our farm.  I have been stung by the yellow & black ones.  They hurt like hell.  "Than" is the generic Thai name for wasps and hornets of all types I believe.  I think the ones that build a nest like that are red and we had a big nest on our property about 3 years ago which became a no-go are for a while.  Eventually someone stole it, thank heavens.  I offered to a number of people but no-one wanted to go near it.  Then one day it was gone.  It was like a round pyramid on the ground  about 60cm across at the base and the same height.   They were definitely red and I was warned not to get stung by them.   After a while I started experimenting by mowing nearer and nearer to it and they seemed pretty cool about it but I never went right up to it.    I did spray it from a distance with insecticide streams a few times, ready to decamp in a hurry if necessary but they never came to me.  We went away for 2 weeks overseas and came back & it was gone.  There was no fence around the property then.

Edited October 9, 2017 by The Deerhunter

[whaleboneman]

4 hours ago, 0815 said:

A nest is on power pole next to my garden.
Around the same size.
I went to the authorities 4 times already. No reaction - still busy on fb...

If it makes you feel any better, going to the authorities in Canada about a hornets nest would have the same result (but maybe without the fb)

[Mitker]

10 hours ago, lvr181 said:

Not wanting to sound ignorant  but where is the 'value' in the hornets nest?

I've been told that Thai people are looking for them for 2 reasons:

1) they enjoy the larvae as a delicacy

2) they would hang the empty nest in their entrance since it supposedly brings good luck (at least that's what they say in Chiang Mai)

 

and since the offer is limited, price is rather high

[Mitker]

I've been stung once

 

They obviously like to build nests inside our factory: 3 so far - 2 still to get rid of, but we coexist somehow peacefully so far and their nests are indeed beautiful

By reading the other posts, I guess I've been lucky

It hurt like a wasp would but what I remember is how I saw them truly aim at you like a missile: no landing, just crashing dart first. Impressive.

A Thai worker immediately asked me if I was feeling some dizziness or else; obviously they know the symptoms allergic people would feel.

He just squeezed the area to expel the venom and within a couple of hours it was all memory. Just a mark on my arm lasting like a week or so.

[Mitker]

our worker's bike basket on his way back home

feasting time