I went hiking last year and found a european hornets nest, needless to say I turned around. I didn't even bother to raise my camera, my nerves were more important at the time.

I would love to go to place that had these insects on display (behind like 4 layers of bullet proof glass), but if I had to go out in the wild to get them I will leave that to the professionals.

Yikes, when I think scary insect life Japan wouldn't be on the top of my mind. Maybe I should reconsider that...

>> Every year i battle another pest. So far i had palm-sized hunterspiders, thousands of yasude (millipedes), mukade (centipedes), Wasps, cockroaches <<

In the end the bugs&insects will win... sure of it.. ;-)

lol, doku hebi in the computer!

where abouts in osaka do you live? I used to live in katano-shi (between neyagawa-shi and hirakata-shi).

I had a mukade outside my house. they can live if you chop them in half. I got out a can of fly spray and a lighter and blow torched it to death.

Gareth said:
i see your hornet, and raise you an asian giant hornet (that looks too small for suzumebachi)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldjapanphotos/6201752963/in/photostream/

nice one! ... i also had a wasp problem last year ... but i don't think they were anywhere as big as one of those suzumebachi things!

picture of it (sorry for the bad quality, that was way before i had a D800 ;-)! ):
http://i.imgur.com/0lJyl.jpg

4 of them tried to build a nest on my office window. So i sprayed them with mukade-poison (mukade = poisonous japanese centipedes). Needed quite a bit of spraying to get them all killed which wasn't easy ... they move fast and get angry if you spray them ;-)!

Living at the edge of Osaka close to the mountains exposes one to quite a bit of nasty Japanese-insect-life. Every year i battle another pest. So far i had palm-sized hunterspiders, thousands of yasude (millipedes), mukade (centipedes), Wasps, cockroaches ... and last year i had a cooling fan in my computer stopped and to my surprise found a tiny little dead and dried up snake blocking it (probably a doku-hebi?!).

I wonder what it's going to be this year ;-)!

i see your hornet, and raise you an asian giant hornet (that looks too small for suzumebachi)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldjapanphotos/6201752963/in/photostream/

(not my pic, they still have venom when they're dead)

you don't mess with these, I have walked through a field of them, and trust me it was nerve wracking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L54exo8JTUs

Looks like it's trying to communicate with you.

LOL!

I'd have let him land in the camera before screwing the lens on, and battered him with my mirror at 4fps :-) I know they are all Gods creatures, but anything looking like that that comes in to my house is fair game!

>>Any comment is welcomed<<

Cool shooting Shine :-)

Hint on Camera ( well not directly the camera) , you may need a polarizer ? :-)

So this could be another 'I bought a D800!' thread. But when I was busy on registering myself to the Nikon website, some insect flew into my room! :O a big big hornet or something like that!

I immediately put on 70-200 VRII but found it is not good enough, so micro nikkor 200mmF/4 it is! The bee is landing on the window, when I want to take more pictures, it accidentally fell into a transparent glass jar under it! I put some book on the top, then I take my time!

However, the jar is in round shape, and the reflection make it more difficult. Since I was eagerly registering, and so in a such hurry to play with my new camera, I took some quick picture, as uploaded here (and on my flickr).

I am sorry for the horrible reflection, but this is the best I can do. And the focal plane actually fell on the glass! Still, you can see the detail of this incredible insect!

The original size cropped to show the head.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/6891892082_24b5510f71_o_d.jpg

And the original resized is on my flickr. ID shineofleo. (I did not put the original file because it is not a good one!)

Any comment is welcomed and please give some hints about this amazing camera! Thanks!