A female passenger at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, was stung late last month by an Asian hornet, or a “tiger head bee,” in what was reported to be the first such incident at the country’s main airport.
The hornet injects a potent venom that can damage tissue and even be lethal in some cases.
The woman said she was standing at an airline counter in Terminal 2 on Aug. 30 when she felt an insect flying near her head, local media reported.
She tried to swat it, but then felt an acute pain on her inner wrist, she said.
A wasp, nearly 5cm long fell to the ground and she immediately stamped on it, the woman said.
“The pain was unbearable even after emergency treatment at the medical center and taking medicine,” said the woman surnamed Lee (李), who was leading a tour group to Thailand.
Lee said she could not abandon her group, so she boarded the plane for Thailand as scheduled.
By the time she returned to Taiwan on Sunday, the sting had festered and she later developed cellulitis, a skin infection characterized by swelling, warmth, redness and pain.
This is the first reported case of a passenger being stung by a hornet at the airport since it opened in 1979.
The airport agreed to pay Lee’s medical bills and presented her with a gift.
Management also mobilized more than 30 people at the airport to search for hornet’s nests and other pests, but nothing was found.
An official said that although it was probably an isolated incident, the airport would step up pest control efforts.
Sung I-hsin (宋一鑫), an entomologist with the Council of Agriculture, said that tiger head bees usually build their nests in earth mounds, but can fly more than 10km.
Most likely, the bee that stung Lee inadvertently flew into the airport terminal, he said.
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