July 20, 2006—With its 3-inch (7.6-centimeter) wingspan and quarter-inch (70-millimeter) stinger, the Japanese giant hornet is the world's largest species of wasp. These fearsome insects can easily overpower praying mantises, bees, and even other wasps.

Join a solitary queen as she gives rise to an entire colony, watch a raid on a yellow hornet nest, and see how the insects prepare to start all over again as food-scarce winter rolls around.