10 deadliest insects: The most dangerous insects to humans

Discover Wildlife ^ | 9/28/23 | Leoma Williams

[DallasBiff]

There are plenty of contenders for the top 10 deadliest insects. Forget great white sharks and grizzly bears, insects are actually the most dangerous group of animals in the world to humans. This is in a large part due to their proficiency at carrying and spreading deadly diseases, from malaria to the black death.

Many species of insect feed on vertebrate blood, putting them in a prime position to carry nasty bacteria, viruses, and parasites from victim to victim, and often from animal to human.

[DallasBiff]

Well many moons ago I attended an outdoor fraternity rush gathering, next to Lake Mendota, gaed the mosquitos were bad. >p> I'm still alive..

[crusty old prospector]

Fire ants.

[Navy Patriot]

#1 is the Zeepers Creeper.

[Bob434]

there was a show on called “The Kings of Pain” where 2 fellas woudl let commonly poisonous things (as long as the poisons weren’t dangerous/deadly) bite them in order to create a ‘pain index’ for science

They were stabbed by lion fish, stone fish, all kinds of stinging insects- executioner wasps, and other types even worse- bullet ants etc-

it was pretty wild- they have some videos on youtube- I haven’t seen them in a few years though- i think the pain got to them too much eventually- in the show they woudl take you through the recovery days too- where the pain woudl still be going strong days later in some cases- it was a really wild show

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kings+of+pain

[sasquatch]

I’ve heard that the state bird of Alaska is a mosquito.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Not only are mosquitos responsible for more human fatalities a year than any other animal (including ourselves)

Yup, this jibes with what I've read - that mosquitoes have been responsible for more human death than any other animal in human history (including man). And they continue to be the biggest killer of humans on the planet.

If we could find a way to completely eradicate mosquitoes, not only would we be saving countless human lives every year, we'd also be getting some measure of revenge on a species which has decimated us throughout our history on this planet.

[Deaf Smith]

FYI

The Great Texas Mosquito Festival in Clute (Texas y’all) is July 25-27.

[Blurb2350]

Out here in the Arizona desert we have tarantula hawks — very large wasp-like creatures that scurry along the ground looking for tarantula burrows. Once found, it darts down the hole, stings the poor tarantula and lays a clutch of eggs in its juicy torso. The tarantula hawk is alleged to have the most painful sting of all North American insects.

[doorgunner69]

Lawyers #1?

Oh, this is insects, not parasites......

[eastsider]

Just when I thought I’d seen everything …

[Right_Wing_Madman]

mosquitoes have been responsible for more human death than any other animal in human history

And even today, the little mosquito is responsible for more human deaths than all the other animals combined.

Humans killed per year by:

Mosquitos: 1,000,000
Humans: 475,000
Snakes: 50,000
Dogs: 25,000
Tsetse flies: 10,000
Assassin bugs: 10,000
Scorpions: 3,250
Roundworms: 2,500
Tapeworms: 2,000
Crocodiles/Alligators: 1,000
Hippos: 500
Elephants: 500

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

[TribalPrincess2U]

Fire ants could rule the world if they wanted to.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

I am sure glad Gates is breeding billions of mosquitos.

What could possibly go wrong?

[ansel12]

I was doing property surveys in Harris County which means exposing all the deeply buried property rods sometimes buried for many long decades, which could get very messy at times with machetes and shovels and metal detectors, I ran into fire ants many, many times and they raise puss filled welts, they will also come after you, unlike other ants, if you get close to them they attack.

[HerrBlucher]

[dfwgator]

[laplata]

Lol But they’re dumb and easy to slap down.

[A strike]

Rachel Carson,SilentSpring,DDT

[fella]

BINGO!!!!!

[fso301]

If we could find a way to completely eradicate mosquitoes, not only would we be saving countless human lives every year, we'd also be getting some measure of revenge on a species which has decimated us throughout our history on this planet.

Mosquitoes must have some role in the ecosystem as a general population regulator. I can't imagine how miserable the existence of animals must be in areas with high mosquito counts.