The Council of Agriculture (COA) has shared ways to deal with hornets in the wild, as hornet activity peaks between July and November, coinciding with hikers hitting the trails due to cooling weather.
Late last month, a hornet attack near New Taipei City’s Sandiaoling (三貂嶺) killed one person and injured three, while another incident earlier this month hospitalized a family of five after an attack on a trail in New Taipei City’s Dacukeng (大粗坑) area.
Many attempt to shoo away hornets, which is a serious mistake, the COA wrote on Facebook.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
Hornets are highly social insects, functioning together as a unit, and if one is attacked, they assume that the nest is being attacked and descend upon hikers as a whole, it said.
The COA urged people to keep in mind three principles when meeting hornets in the wild, the first of which is to crouch low and leave the area immediately.
If people are attacked by hornets, they should protect their head with their clothing and leave the area as fast as possible while keeping low, the COA said, adding people should attempt to move with the wind to prevent disturbing the air current or leaving behind body scents that can attract the hornets.
If an attack occurs in an area with a crowd, the people should disperse, it added.
The COA cautioned against trying to shoo away the hornets by waving their clothes about, as this would only cause the person to be a clearer target.
Those stung by hornets can alleviate symptoms of severe pain, swelling and itching by treating the area with antihistamine gels before visiting a doctor, it said.
People who develop boils or aggravated wounds should ensure that their wounds are covered to avoid infection, it added.
Should stung individuals develop acute allergies, feel faint, experience an onset of unconsciousness, or experience palpitation or difficulty breathing, they should immediately go to the nearest hospital, the COA said.
The council also reminded people that they should wear light-colored clothing that has smooth surfaces when hiking, adding that dark colors, sweaters or clothing with rough surfaces should be avoided.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
RSS