
Angry hornets buzz in Afghanistan following an explosion set by explosive ordnance disposal technicians. (YouTube screen grab)
Traveling in Kajaki, Afghanistan, last year, I learned that we’d be spending a couple nights in a small mud compound with Marines… and a nest or oriental hornets. The insects looked monstrous — they can grow to more than two inches long — but there were no incidents worth mentioning.
A video recorded in 2007 suggests that hornets in Afghanistan aren’t always so harmless, however. It went viral online today, after being posted to Reddit, Gawker and other sites:
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Anybody else feel like they need some long sleeves? Clearly, these bugs aren’t fans of controlled detonations like Marines.
The YouTube video page suggests the insects are wasps, but a commenter suggests they are again oriental hornets. Here’s what they looked like last year in Kajaki:
Little death machines, that’s what they are. Little death machines.