The Dangerous Sting of the Asian Hornet: “My Whole Back Was Burning. Two Years Have Passed and I Still Have the Scar”

Antonio Landa knows the Huesca Pyrenees well and understands that sometimes mishaps occur during outdoor activities. He works for a company that rents portable toilets, a service frequently used by summer camps in these mountains. “We install them one or two days before the kids arrive,” he says. He never imagined he could experience what happened in July 2022: “I was looking for the water key in a patch of forest when, suddenly, bam!, I felt the sting. I reached for my back and I could grab it. It was a very large hornet, which I immediately threw to the ground. From what I was told later, it was the Asian hornet. At first, I wasn’t scared: the ones I’ve encountered before have stung me other times. I couldn’t know what was coming my way. Two years have passed and I still remember it with horror. My whole back was burning. I still have the scar.”