My understanding from (very briefly) reading about the insect family Reduviidae is some species are parasitic and spread deadly pathogens much the same way mosquitoes do. It's not the insects themselves killing people, but diseases like Chagas disease (Triatominae is a subfamily of Reduviidae "Assassin Bug"). [1]

[1] https://www.paho.org/en/topics/chagas-disease

The assassin bug is called "vinchuca" in my country, Argentina, and it's a real problem here. There are ways to combat the bug, but once you catch the Chagas disease, there's no cure and you have to live with it. There is only symptomatic treatment as far as I know.

> Wonder if those Murder Hornets will make next year's list?

I was curious, so:

> Since 2001, the yearly human death toll caused by stings of bees, wasps and hornets in Japan has been ranging between 12 and 26.[26] Since this number also includes deaths caused by wasps, bees, and other hornet species, the number of deaths caused by Asian giant hornets is likely to be significantly lower.[citation needed]

from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet

[26] is a Japanese source that I cannot read.

Seems like they're not a huge threat?

I hadn't heard of them either. They don't seem nearly as terrifying to me as murder hornets. They're dangerous due to disease.

Their nests are pretty cool though. Kinda like a flat hex grid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduviidae#/media/File:Assassi...

When I was a kid at camp we used to catch them and make them fight other bugs. Those things are creepy.