Current Events Lesson Plan: November 17-23, 2016
Current Event: Monster Monday: The Asian Giant Hornet
The Asian giant hornet is the largest hornet in the world. It is so large that it is sometimes mistaken for a small bird in flight. Worker Asian giant hornets grow up to 1.75 inches (4.5 centimeters) long, and queens can grow even larger. They are equipped with piercing jaws, a quarter-inch-long (half-centimeter-long) stinger loaded with deadly venom (poison), and an aggressive disposition. Asian giant hornet venom is not more dangerous than the venom of other hornets or wasps, but these giants deliver more venom when they sting. And because of the hornets’ violent swarming behavior, victims are often stung many times at once by many different hornets. Asian giant hornet venom destroys flesh and red blood cells and, if it is delivered in a large enough dose, can lead to cardiac arrest or kidney failure. In Japan alone, Asian giant hornets kill about 40 people and injure some 1,500 others each year. These hornets are found throughout Japan and Southeast Asia. However, some environmentalists fear that the Asian giant hornet will invade other continents, particularly because of the uncertain effects of global warming. Isolated sightings have already been reported in the United States and Europe. Many of these sightings may be cases of mistaken identity, however, as these areas have their own large species (kinds) of wasps and hornets.
Asian Giant Hornet. Credit: Yasunori Koide (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)
Objective:
Hornets are large social wasps that live in North America, Europe, and Asia, typically within northern wooded regions. The nests of hornets consist of chewed up wood and plant fiber. Most nests hang in shrubs and trees, but they sometimes occur in buildings or even in the ground. A mated female called the queen starts to make the nest in the spring. She constructs several hexagonal cells and lays an egg in each one. When the eggs hatch, she feeds the larvae. All the young of this first brood consist of females. They become workers who help the queen enlarge the nest, gather food, and rear additional broods. By late summer, the nest may grow larger than a basketball and may contain hundreds of adult hornets. In the fall, new queens and males are born. After mating, the queens leave the nest to hibernate in a protected location. The workers and males die after the first frosts. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore hornets and other insects.
Words to know:
Discussion Topics:
1. Ask your students to name some types of insects besides hornets. (Students might name ants, bees, butterflies, cockroaches, crickets, dragonflies, fireflies, fleas, grasshoppers, lice, mosquitoes, moths, termites.)
2. Asian giant hornets are found in Japan and Southeast Asia. Ask your students what they know about Japan. (They might say Japan is an island country in Asia; Tokyo is the country’s capital and largest city; Japan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world; Japan has one of the largest economies in the world in terms of GDP; Japan’s tallest mountain is Mount Fuji, an inactive volcano.)
3. Ask your students, “Because Asian giant hornets kill dozens of people every year, humans should do all that they can to eradicate them or any other animal that kills large numbers of people.”
