Chloé Lagadou, edited by Juliette Moreau Alvarez 8:04 p.m., August 22, 2022

Two cyclists were violently attacked by hornets on Sunday after cycling near their nest.

The two men were stung about fifty times each, and were hospitalized in absolute emergency.

An attack which remains rare and which generally intervenes when the insects feel in imminent danger.

Sunday August 21, two cyclists were attacked by hornets in the Loire.

On a mountain bike outing, they passed two meters from the hornet's nest.

The two men then suffered about fifty bites each.

An impressive event, but which remains rare in France according to Éric Darrouzet.

The researcher, specialist in social insects, explains to the microphone of Europe 1 why the hornets reacted this way.

Wardens who sound the alarm

"When you approach a nest, you enter a dangerous zone. In a hornet's or wasp's nest, you have guardians at the entrance of the nest who monitor what is happening around and who will spot you very easily, very quickly," says the researcher.

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It is these guardians who sound the alarm.

"The guardian is the one who will estimate whether or not you represent a danger."

When a person is in the buffer zone, five or ten meters from the nest, it is the gestures and vibrations created that will represent a danger for the insects.

"And there, you will be attacked", assures Éric Darrouzet.

According to the social insect specialist, this is what happened to cyclists.

Their bikes surely alerted the hornets when they were very close to the nest, explaining the number of bites.

"That means that there were several workers in attack, several dozen", notes Éric Darrouzet.

"It must have been near the nest."

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The researcher remains amazed at the number of bites suffered by the two men: "In general, people are bitten once, ten times and people run away. Fifty times is huge," admits Éric Darrouzet.

The day after the attack, the two men are still hospitalized, in absolute emergency.