The bee species has been under the looming threat of extinction in recent times. And while countries are trying to recognise the problem and do their best, the US now has a new, extremely serious threat to deal with — Murder Hornets.

If an insect has the word ‘Murder’ as its first name, you should definitely be taking it seriously. Murder hornets are actually known as the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), but earned its vicious nickname due to its not-so-cordial personality. This 2-inch (5 cm) long Asian giant hornet is an invasive species and is notorious for crawling into bee hives and wiping out large numbers of bees, mostly by decapitating them. So there’s no doubt that they pose a major threat to the bee species in America.

As its name suggests, this species is limited to Asian countries, bit nobody knows how it landed in America. It was first spotted in Washington a few weeks earlier, and since then, government officials and bee-keepers have taken the issue seriously, and are doing their best to prevent the species from spreading through the continent. So yes, it’s bad for bees, but what if you happen to have an encounter with a murder hornet? Well, if you thought a bee sting was bad, you definitely don’t want to come across these things. A sting from a murder hornet is said to be excruciatingly painful.

Compared to these guys, wasps don’t seem so bad now, do they?