What goes bump in the night?
Hello all.
A ponderence for you all.
After a night out the other day in mid summer. My first in a very very long time and my first in Japan. (normally more of a winter hiker and for me Japanese trails aren't really long enough to need an overnighter in summer (ultralight gear, just water and a sandwich etc)
I was wondering what everyone most "scared" of at night? Myton ten list for Japan goes as follows:
1 (with a bullet) suzume bachi (Japanese Sparrow Hornet. Look it up it is a nightmare. This is by far my most feared/ don't want to see thing I'd rather a 1000 mozzies/deer fly/midgies than have one of these buzz around my camp. They have a shell, they emit pheromones to alert other hornets, they can sting through leather shoes, and they also bite. And on top of it all their sting is one of the most painful and I think most toxic of all INSECTS, (thing with 6 legs) some spiders and scorpions are more toxic.
2 mosquitoes
3 midgies (tiny annoying flies)
4 massive spiders and their webs
5 all other stinging insects, Ants, bees, other wasps and hornets, etc.
6 Monkeys (they are wild and the males are BIG, woke up one spring morning with a troupe 10ft front my hammock looking at me.
7 bears, especially the Northern islands (only camped in camp sites never wild camped up north) There are black (asiatic black bear) across all of Japan, but Hokkaido has Grizzlies, too [ursus arctos horribilis]
8 cicada en masse , not problem on their own really other than they sometimes dive bomb you and are noisy,(I actually like the sound as long as one isn't on one of my two trees)
9 Slugs, they get in your gear if left open)on the ground.
10 (struggling now) centipedes, only really in southern areas, but they bite and it is a bad sting I hear.
Would be interested to hear other peoples views.
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