In Japan, even the bugs are bad ass.

Over at cracked.com, they like to do these lists.

Lo and behold their recent list: The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World

While 4 of the 5 most horrifying bugs in the world are found in South or Central America, a Japanese bug holds the #1 title.

I present to you the Japanese Giant Hornet (vespa mandarinia japonica) aka the Asian Giant Hornet or the Yak Killer Hornet

That’s right. The Yak Killer Hornet.

Actually, this scary thing is found in various parts of Asia: Korea, China, Taiwan (where it is called the “tiger bee”), Indochina, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, but is most common in mountainous areas of Japan (where it is called suzumebachi スズメバチ, or the “sparrow bee”).*

Anyway, why is this critter so bad ass?

It’s the size of your thumb and it can spray flesh-melting poison. We really wish we were making that up for, you know, dramatic effect because goddamn, what a terrible thing a three-inch acid-shooting hornet would be, you know? Oh, hey, did we mention it shoots it into your eyes? Or that the poison also has a pheromone cocktail in it that’ll call every hornet in the hive to come over and sting you until you are no longer alive?

Think you can outrun it? It can fly 50 miles in a day. It’d be nice to say something reassuring at this point, like “Don’t worry, they only live on top of really tall mountains where nobody wants to live,” but no, they live all over the goddamned place, including outside Tokyo.

Forty people die like that every year, each of them horribly.

And I thought the big-ass flying cockroaches in Taiwan were scary! (#2 – #5 on that horrifying bug list were pretty scary, too… much scarier than the flying cockroaches…)

Image courtesy of cracked.com

*Thanks, Wikipedia