The stinger of the Asian giant hornet is about 6 mm (0.24 in) long,[6] and injects an especially potent venom that contains, like many bee and wasp venoms, a cytolytic peptide (specifically, a mastoparan) that can damage tissue by stimulating phospholipase action,[14] in addition to its own phospholipase.[14] Masato Ono, an entomologist at Tamagawa University near Tokyo, described the sensation as feeling "like a hot nail being driven into my leg".[6]
The venom contains a neurotoxin called mandaratoxin,[14] a single-chain polypeptide with a molecular weight around 20 kD.[14] Whilst a single wasp cannot inject a lethal dose, it can be lethal even to people who are not allergic if the dose is sufficient (i.e., if multiple stings are received). However, if the victim is allergic to the venom, this greatly increases the risk of death.
Each year in Japan, the human death toll caused by Asian giant hornet stings is around 30 to 40.[14][15]
Advice in China is that people stung more than 10 times need medical help, and need emergency treatment for more than 30 stings. The stings can cause kidney failure.[16] In 2013, stings by Asian giant hornets killed 41 people and injured more than 1,600 people in Shaanxi, China.[17]
Sounds like typical SUN sensationalism or bovine excrement if you prefer, same kind of baloney as that mass graves in New York that was first pushed by the BBC from what I can see. It would appear that those at greatest risk from these giant hornets are our honey bees and how that would impact our crops and other plants that depend on them for pollination, and that seems a lot scarier than their 'kill with a single sting' malarkey.
