Posted on 06/04/2024 7:41:51 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at discoverwildlife.com ...
Sounds like a show for masochists. No thanks.
“I’ve heard that the state bird of Alaska is a mosquito.”
That was stationed in the Aleutians, the mosquitoes weren’t a problem unless there was a calm day which thankfully were few.
When the wind stopped mosquitoes then rise up out of the the tundra and it is a type of hell. I have read where caribou can actually be smothered, though I have never seen carcass photographs documenting this.
Down in the Savannahs of South Carolina and Georgia that had a saying. “The mosquitoes are so big they can f*** a turkey flat foot.” Tidewater Virginia close to water in rural areas is pretty thick with them buggers, “they’ll suck you dry, carry you off, and drop you 7 miles away.” I have a well maintained screened in porch so I might enjoy summer’s evenings. Maine, Michigan et al are renown for the clouds of those ubiquitous infernal creatures.
A creationist once told me that mosquitoes originally sucked nector until satan fell from heaven... or was it when Adam ate the apple?
BTW... MILSPEC DDT really worked.
Depending on your race:
3: Snakes
2: Ghosts
1: Registered Mail
I was going to say “where are the ticks?”.’’then remembered they are Arachnids.
Around Indiana they are probably the greatest threat of any animal.
The worst I’ve ever experienced were sand flies along the coast of Honduras. They’re tiny like no-see-ums, but their bite itches like hell and lasts for up to a month.
I think fire ants are telepathic - if you step on a nest, they will swarm you until there’s about a thousand on you - then they all bite at the same time...
If I recall, they did a show on that insect too
One show that stands out to me was on the “toe-biter” water insect- I can’t count how many times I’ve waded in streams barefoot- after seeing that segment though, I think I’ll keep my shoes on lol
It was really a show for science- and for those who always wondered just how bad certain insects, fish, jellyfish etc would hurt if stung or stabbed or bitten by them. The one that surprised me was the harvester ants- how painful they are. We don’t have them out east I don’t think, but folks out west would do well to avoid their huge nests- they are really painful I guess.
It’s more about finding out what insects and animals etc to avoid, knowing how to spot,them to,avoid them etc.
Our town’s local mosquito control guy died a few years back, and Noone replaced him for a few years. The mosquitos got so bad, that even just jogging down the street was intolerable. It was sick how fast they sprung back up when not controlled- and how many there were. It was so bad that it drove tourists away, and even us locals couldn’t take being out in the mosquito clouds for very long
This year is the first that a new person has taken over spraying, and what a difference it has made already.
The other I sect that is really bothersome are the black flies- hey get really bad some years- then there are the horse flies, deer flies (smaller than horse flies, but more ruthless, and they drive animals bonkers), no see’ums stable flies for those,around animal farms.
I wish the town would put a bounty on mosquitos- $10 per carcass lol. We could be rich in no time 😆
Eww, those things are ugly. I had to go look.
Only the female mosquito sucks blood.
Therefore, females are responsible for more human fatalities per year than any other animal.
So, “Assault Rifles” kill fewer people than elephants every year?
When Alaska became a state, National Geographic did a large article about Alaska. They included a bunch of jokes about Alaska. Thus was one of them:
One day, the tower at Elmendorf Air Force Base was noticing that there was an unidentified aircraft coming in. They decided that it was not an enemy and that they simply did not have communication available. So, they alerted the ground crews to standby to receive an aircraft to service. The aircraft landed and the crews rushed over to the aircraft to service it. They managed to pump 50 gallons of gas into it before they realize it was an Alaskan mosquito.
Don't know about caribou but it does happen to cows and horses.
A creationist once told me that mosquitoes originally sucked nector until satan fell from heaven... or was it when Adam ate the apple?
Nectar is still their primary food source.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200122080547.htm
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