In terms of things you don’t want to find crawling around on your belongings, we’d hazard a guess that this magnificent beast is right up there.
Japan-based Twitter user @Sun_S_K shared several images of what appears to be a terrifying prehistoric monster giant Asian hornet clambering across a jumper hanging in a wardrobe.
One of the captions reads: "A lot of people think the picture of the giant hornets I posted were fake so I'm putting up more photos I took."
Yeah thanks for that. Given the vast size of the insect, the images have gone viral, with a combined retweet reach of more than 10,000.
Rocket News explains the hornets are known colloquially as osuzumebachi (‘giant sparrow bee’) and tend to grow to around two inches in length (with a wing span of up to three inches), though this specimen appears to have exceeded that size by some considerable margin.
Distinguished by their yellow feet, the hornets typically wield stingers in excess of 6mm in length.
The natural predators have jaws powerful enough to chew through regular protective bee suits and their venom, which they can spray, dissolves human flesh. It also destroys red blood cells, which can result in kidney failure and death.
If their venom lands in the eyes, the eye tissue will melt, according to the National Geographic. Masato Ono, an entomologist at Tamagawa University, near Tokyo, was unlucky enough to be attacked by one and told the channel the sting felt like "a hot nail through my leg."
The species preys on native honeybees, wasps and other pollinators, potentially devastating hives and threatening honey and crop production.
They are estimated to caused between 30-40 fatalities in Japan each year.