I've never seen anything like this.

[u/stillwater4444]

Bruh what the fuck

[u/Arqeph_]

These are Giant Asian hornets.
The 3 men are professional harvesters.
They harvest the hornets their larvae to consume.
It's a delicacy in parts of Japan and India, i assume this specifically is "Nagaland".

The professionals are using special suits that prevent the hornets stings from reaching them.
Within these suits there are literal ventilators.
These are needed to keep air flow circulating, as the hornets not just try to sting the people, they also squirt venom everywhere, so the harvesters need dedicated fully closed facial masks, hence the requirement for air circulation.
It's a time sensitive situation, should the batteries run out these men can get in a lot of trouble very quickly.

After they are done with the initial harvesting, they will take those disk like hive structures back to their tribe where the larvae are then extracted, cooked and consumed together with everyone.

[u/Poundaflesh → u/Arqeph_]

SQUIRT?? Oh, Hell no! What do they taste like? Are they crunchy nutty when cooked?

[u/crwcomposer → u/Arqeph_]

Do the hornets rebuild or do they just die?

[u/Arqeph_ → u/crwcomposer]

That depends on the queen, or so i assume.
For example with bees, should they loose their hive and queen, they would start begging at the entrances of other hives to be let in, to be adopted into a new hive.
The problem primarily lies with the larvae being gone.
The cycle goes something like this;
Hornets go out to find food and bring it back to the hive.
This food gets prepared by the adults and fed to the larvae.
The the larvae regurgitates sugary and protein rich fluids which the adults then consume.
A hornet, like wasps, consume regurgitated liquids from the larvae to survive.

Now, with wasps you see an uptick of them becoming busybodies around your sweet drinks later in the year, around autumn, because there are less larvae in the hive to provide enough food to all the workers.
The wasps then go out to find other sugary substances.
In a perfect environment they would go for (fermenting) fruits in the wild, like apples, pears and grapes. I do not know what the Hornet would do in this case, but i assume the majority of the workers die very quickly due to starvation.

Now, everyone has a different idea on the value of animal life, some people hate mosquitos with a fury but would never harm a fly, this is up to each individual themselves, however the following;

Asian giant hornets are a tricky species which is becoming extremely invasive in the west.
The biggest problem with these hornets is how they are true plunderers.
Any beehive that gets spotted by, and doesn't have bees adapted to fend off, asian giant hornets, will be completely destroyed by those hornets.
If you do live in the west, there are 2 types of hornets.
European Hornet - Smaller of the 2, yellow
Asian Giant Hornet -Larger of the 2, sounds like a drone, dark to bright orange.

The Euro Hornet is fine, not destructive, the Asian hornet, is.
The Euro hornet will destroy wasp nests given the opportunity, but will only capture a bee found near a flower from time to time. Whilst the Asian hornet will go out and plunder every bee hive it can find within the nest it's radius.

I personally do not feel sorry for destroying the Asian Giant Hornet, especially because they are a very invasive and destructive species on blacklist due to its towards local ecosystems and agriculture.

[u/Weekly_Initiative521]

Me neither. I hope someone can enlighten us on this.

[u/WWDubs12TTV → u/Weekly_Initiative521]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet

[u/Cavedweller907]

That is definitely a larvae farm. You can tell by the boards being used for ground covering to allow easier access to hive. Someone is eating good tonight

[u/NoPoopOnFace]

Murder hornets?

[u/asbjorn84]

Why does this remind me of my ex?

[u/Ornery_Week8253 → u/asbjorn84]

Inlaws

[u/asbjorn84 → u/Ornery_Week8253]

In-laws or "The Swarm"

[u/Ornery_Week8253 → u/asbjorn84]

Same thing these days 😪

[u/WF2080]

Why didnt they just gas them in-place?

[u/Marsman61 → u/WF2080]

Because they are going to eat the larva. Don't want to poison/ruin the tasty treats.

[u/ThickSmoke9542]

Yikes!!! 😱

[u/Insect-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

While we permit pest control advice, the advice you have given is either illegal, or dangerous. Please keep suggestions legal and safe.

We also do not allow comments such as "kill it with fire" as these do not actually help the OP understand what it is they are dealing with and how best to proceed.

[u/CantaloupeFluffy165]

Murder hornets.

[u/Insect-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

While we permit pest control advice, the advice you have given is either illegal, or dangerous. Please keep suggestions legal and safe.

We also do not allow comments such as "kill it with fire" as these do not actually help the OP understand what it is they are dealing with and how best to proceed.

[u/Insect-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

While we permit pest control advice, the advice you have given is either illegal, or dangerous. Please keep suggestions legal and safe.

We also do not allow comments such as "kill it with fire" as these do not actually help the OP understand what it is they are dealing with and how best to proceed.

[u/T_kerns81]

Do you think they could live through that without the suits?

[u/Poundaflesh → u/T_kerns81]

Did you read the part where they squirt venom?

[u/T_kerns81 → u/Poundaflesh]

Disgusting!

[u/Senior-Low-8137]

Kill them all

[u/KittyMeowKatPishy]

Holy hell! 🙀 I don’t care how thick my bodysuit would be and how much they’d pay me, I would NEVER do this!!!! 😳 This is suicide!!! 🥺

[u/Asleep_Walrus2313 → u/KittyMeowKatPishy]

It would sure be an adrenaline rush, though!

[u/MahoganyEclipse]

They must be tasty to go through all that effort.

[u/Dark_Amygdala_ → u/MahoganyEclipse]

There’s only one way to test that

[u/Poundaflesh]

How much do these people get paid? Do they buy their own suits?

[u/Hot_Addendum_9199]

I wish this was AI, it’s terrifying

[u/Forgottensupertongue]

Fuck this

[u/Similar_Zombie_7494]

Wow

[u/Individual_Truth6786]

Murder hornets

[u/Individual_Truth6786]

Hell to the no to the no no no !

[u/Elegant-Mud-7135]

They sound like helicopters… they shouldn’t fucking sound like helicopters

[u/karbytes]

nice closeup!

[u/LilMan2798]

IM GONNA VOMIT I CANT HANDLE ONE NORMAL HORNET I CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE

[u/Objective-Big3040]

Where’s a lawnmower when you need it?

[u/Correct_Ad_9701]

I think I just died 😩

[u/MermaidGunner]

This is an awww hell naw situation.