Dangerous "Hachi"

One day last Spring when I was teaching one of my Elementary classes in the gym instead of in the classroom, a huge bug flew in through the open door. It looked like a really big bee to me. Since most of the students had their backs to its meandering in the back of the gym, they couldn’t see it. But one student heard it, turned around and saw it, and then yelled in a terror filled voice, “Hachi!!” Immediately, everyone broke into a panic as they ran as far away from the bug as possible. Of course, I just stood where I was amazed that everyone, including the teacher, was running away from a bug like it was the Black Death. The teacher shouted some command at the students (probably something like, “Don’t go near it! It will kill you!” by the way they stayed away from it) while he ran out of the gym. He came back not even 30 seconds later with a can of bug spray and a broom. When the bug stopped on the gym floor, he ran up to it and sprayed it until it didn’t move and then he smashed it with the broom. After the mess was cleaned up, class resumed.
I remember how amazed I was on that day at their reaction to what I thought was just a big bee. They acted like it would kill them. It turns out that it is a very dangerous and painful bee. I don’t know if it can kill you, but I do know that it can give you a lot of pain if it stings you. After that incident in the gym, I asked the teacher of that class why everyone was so afraid of that bug. He showed me a round scar on his arm about the size of a penny and said, “Because this is what they do to you and it hurts a lot.” He said that when he was a child, he was stung by a hachi and it was incredibly painful. They had to cut the stinger out of him at the hospital.
I tried to do some research on these things and amazingly, the only thing I found about them is that they are dangerous. Maybe I’m not doing a very good google for them, but I really can’t find anything more about them. But ever since the day that my teacher showed me his scar, I do like everyone else when I hear the word “hachi” and I run like it’s the most painful thing in the world. Also, when I see a flying insect in the room and it looks anything like a bee, I go to the nearest teacher and ask if it’s a “hachi”. Over the past year and a half, I’ve seen many battles with hachi, but the most interesting one happened several days ago.
I was in the teacher’s room at one of my Elementary schools preparing for the next days classes when I saw a huge bug flying around on the ceiling. I quickly went to a teacher, pointed at the bug, and said in Japanese “Is that dangerous?” Several teachers inched a little towards it and immediately said “Hai!” As we all started running for our lives to the other side of the room, manly Oshima sensei went and got the bug spray. The hachi landed near one of the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, so he turned off the lights in case some of the spray got on the electrical stuff, he took his stand, and started spraying. When he took his stand to spray, I thought that he wasn’t close enough to reach the sucker with the spray because he was on the floor and that thing was on the ceiling. But all doubts were taken away when he sprayed. I’ve never seen such a stream of bug spray come out of a can in such an abundance and with such power that it not only reached the bug on the ceiling, but it sprayed within a whole 1 foot radius of the bug. It sprayed the light and started raining down onto the floor and lunch table. Then I understood why he stood at such a distance from the bug. I wish I could explain how manly and brave he looked spraying the high-powered can of bug spray at a dangerous (deadly?) bee. It was also quite surreal and humorous because I never expected to see a stream of liquid that looks like it’s coming out of a fire hose come out of a regular-sized can.
So, if any of you who read this blog know anything about the Japanese “hachi”, please feel free to comment some info or a link about it. I’m awfully curious. I should probably just ask a Japanese person….