An extreme-nature-show host allowed himself to be stung on cameraby the “nightmarish” Asian giant hornet — which is believed to have first shown up in the US in December and experts warn will now inevitably arrive in the New York area.
“I’m about to enter the sting zone with the giant Japanese hornet,” says Nathaniel “Coyote” Peterson in an episode on his YouTube channel “Brave Wilderness” in November 2018.
“Oh, searing pain! Absolute searing pain!” Peterson screams after putting the world’s largest hornet on his left forearm and being stung.
Peterson says it took days searching for “Japan’s most notorious insect” in the vast forests of the Asian country to find it.
“Look at that, it’s huge!” says Peterson, who also hosts Animal Planet’s “Coyote Peterson: Brave the Wild,” before finally netting the monster orange and black insect.
Peterson puts the hornet — which is more than 2 inches long — in a jar with an orange top.
“Oh, my goodness, look how big it is! My hand is shaking,” Peterson says. “It’s huge, wow! I guess that’s why they call it the giant hornet.
“I would say that ‘giant’ is an understatement.
“Look at that beast. … Everything about this creature screams, ‘Run in the other direction.’ ”
Still, the pain of its stinger is said to be only a 2 on a scale of 1 to 4, he notes.
It injects a toxin that can destroy the tissue of its victims and attack their nervous systems, Peterson says.
He says that while a single sting is not likely be deadly unless someone goes into anaphylactic shock, more than 30 people a year die in Japan from the hornet because they are stung multiple times.
“But no matter how you break it down, this sting is incredibly dangerous,” he says. “If you were to be swarmed by 30 or 40 bees and be stung repetitively, yes, there is a good chance you will die.
“Now I’ve also heard that the venom is going to cook a hole in my arm. Not exactly looking forward to that. But it all depends on how my body reacts to the venom.”
Using tweezers, he picks up the hornet.
“My hands are shaking. I haven’t been this nervous since the tarantula,” he said, referring to a previous episode referring to a species of the giant spider.
“Oh, the stinger’s stuck in my arm!” he screams as he puts the hornet to his limb. “Oh, man, wave of dizziness really quick.”
He grimaces as his skin immediately begins to swell around the sting, saying, “My hand is completely seized up and clenched in place.
“When the stinger went into my arm, I had like this wave, this wave came over me. … The pain was immediate, immediately searing.
“Not a 2,” he said, grunting, referring to the pain index. “Far surpasses the tarantula hawk.”
He then shows the massive raised welt on his arm and says it’s too sensitive to touch.
He has to even take his watch off because of the swelling spreading down his arm.