When people talk about Japan, they usually talk about its beautiful landscapes, rich culture, and delicious food. They talk about the cherry blossom in spring, the soft, powder snow in winter, the deep red autumn leaves, and the summers that, while swelteringly hot, go perfectly with a big glass of cold Japanese beer.

What they don’t talk about are the bugs.

Although Japan has nothing on “Don’t Touch That, It’ll Probably Kill You” Australia, it nevertheless has its fair share of creepy-crawlies, and the oosuzumebachi, or Japanese Giant Hornet is perhaps the worst of the bunch. It’s still only April, but it would seem that the Japanese branch of Satan’s striped servants are already out and about, and getting into people’s apartments, no less…

Incredibly aggressive and growing up to two inches in length, oosuzumebachi are responsible for roughly 30 deaths each year in Japan alone, and have been known to wipe out entire bee colonies, leaving pheromones for their buddies to follow while tearing through the poor, innocent honey-makers with their powerful mandibles. Put short, you don’t want to mess around with one of these things.

Image: Wikimedia

One afternoon this week, Japan-based musician, producer and martial artist Manny Max noticed something crawling across the ceiling in his apartment. Thinking it to be a cicada, he approached it to get a better look. Seconds later he was out of the room grabbing a giant bucket and, knowing that his friends back home would never believe him when he told them how huge the creature was, his mobile phone to take a short video of it.

It’s Manny’s commentary as he’s trying to deal with the intruder, however, that really made our day and turned a scary, and potentially dangerous, situation into comedy gold.

The audio’s a bit quiet, so be sure to turn your speakers right up for this one. Oh, and as you might expect from a video of a man approaching a potentially deadly hornet in his home, you can expect some NSFW language. Take it away, Manny!

Manny apologises for the vertical video in the captions, but honestly we’re just impressed that he stayed in the room and dared to film the thing; we’d have sealed that room off and been on the phone to our landlord the second we laid eyes on it.

Thankfully, the hornet took the hint and “bounced” before things got messy. It’s probably a good thing it did – we’re not sure the burn-it-with-fire approach would work quite so well indoors…

Stay safe this summer, boys and girls!

Thanks to Manny Marx for the tip and the video.