Dangerous Bugs in the World
Dangerous Bugs in the World
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| Dangerous Bugs in the World |
From bullet ants to mosquitos, here are 9 of the deadliest insects in the world! Those deeply afraid of creepy crawlies beware
Bullet Ant
Known as the World’s Most Painful Insect, getting bitten by a bullet ant is something you never want to experience. Native to the rainforests of Central and South America, the small but powerful bullet ant is also known as the hormiga veinticuatro meaning the “24-hour ant” which refers to the full day of pain that follows after being stung. Only a little over an inch in length, it is hard to believe that their sting can feel like getting shot with a bullet.
Dr. Justin Schmidt, an entomologist and research director of the Southwest Biological Institute in Tucson Arizona, invented the Schmidt Sting Pain Index (SSPI) which categorizes the level of pain felt when stung by wasps, bees, and ants. He let himself get stung by all kinds of insects in order to rank their sting. He said that it really felt like getting hit by a bullet with waves of burning pain that were absolutely excruciating and went on for hours. The good thing is that it is a localized effect and this sting does not directly affect your heart or lungs, so you won’t die from it but it will hurt like a bi-atch.
These ants are greatly feared across the rainforest by people and animals alike. However there are several indigenous tribes that use these ants in their initiation rituals. Young boys wishing to be seen as men by the tribes must endure placing their hand in a woven glove filled with these ants. They must endure getting stung repeatedly for at least ten minutes. If that wasn’t enough, the boy must sometimes go through over a dozen of these rituals! None of them suffer long term effects although the trauma may last forever.
Japanese Giant Hornets
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| Dangerous Bugs in the World |
The highly aggressive and territorial Japanese giant hornets are infamous for their painful sting and fearsome nature. A subspecies of the Asian giant hornet, these monsters are much larger than normal hornets and are known to hunt and consume up to 50 unfortunate honey bees a day. As if honey bees didn’t already have enough problems… The creatures which are rapidly becoming a pest have now made nests in France and England and due to poor shipping practices, are spreading across the globe. Their venom is known to destroy red blood cells and those with allergic reactions are especially at risk of death. The Japanese giant hornets kill 30-40 people in Japan alone every year, and send hundreds to hospital.
Its venom attacks the nervous system and damages the tissue of its victims. The stings can also cause renal failure. The giant hornets are attracted to human sweat, alcohol, and sweet flavors and smells. They are especially sensitive when animals or people run and they will start to swarm and attack. Some victims have required hundreds of stitches and numerous dialysis treatments to survive and are still are left with deep scars. These hornets have lead to government initiatives to destroy the nests in Japan and China, and maybe they have the right idea? These aggressive insects are pretty scary.
Fleas
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| Dangerous Bugs in the World |
The hidden villain of the famous black death that ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages, the flea feeds on blood and can spread diseases to animals and humans. Capable of leaping 150 times their own height they can move from animal to animal to consume 15 times their own body weight every single day. The bubonic plague was spread by fleas carrying the disease on-board infected rats and some estimates say it wiped out close to 2/3rds of the population of Europe at the time. Though some might say that is was not the fleas but the infectious bacteria they carried which made it difficult for the creatures to feed.
Therefore they would regurgitate infectious materials on the host. In fact, the disease still survives in many flea infested parts of the world, though it is much more easily treated today. Though the black plague changed the entire face of Medieval history, modern fleas can still infect humans with diseases such as typhus and are still common among the quickly breeding rat populations. Flea bites can cause disastrous allergic reactions on both pets and humans alike due to the saliva that they leave behind after the attack itself. In most cases the only real stress is avoiding the very itchy swollen bite marks and dealing with the infestation quickly as fleas can lay over 50 eggs in a single day!
Tarantula Hawk Wasp
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| Dangerous Bugs in the World |
This insect is the only other bug to reach a 4 on the SSPI scale along with the bullet ant. The tarantula hawk is a solitary wasp that wanders around looking for tarantulas. The goal of the tarantula hawk’s sting is to get a predator such as a bird or a lizard to let it go. The pain from a tarantula hawk is like getting shocked with a high-voltage electric line in a wind storm. The super intense blast is meant to surprise and the pain only lasts for about 3 minutes.
It might seem like longer if you are screaming in agony but after a few minutes, it is suddenly gone. However if you are a tarantula, this sting will not only shock but paralyze. The wasp will then lay a single egg inside the tarantula’s body. When the larvae hatches it will began feeding on the tarantula, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible so the tarantula stays alive. For the rest of us, tarantula hawk wasps rarely sting without provocation but geez, nature you scary!
Botfly
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| Dangerous Bugs in the World |
The botfly though rarely fatal, makes this list for the parasitic horror show it unleashes on it’s mammal victims. Last chance to preserve the innocence of your dreams as the human hunting botfly allows its eggs to grow in human skin which burrow deep and eventually develop into larvae which can be felt under the skin. They do this by catching a mosquito as host and then implanting it with the bot fly’s eggs, which when they go to feed on a mammal (and in many cases human), the eggs fall into the open wound.
This insect horror show can cause the victim to feel the larvae within the skin, squirming when their airway is blocked. Thankfully this species have the decency to not have too large populations and live in many parts of Central and South America. They are usually treated with petroleum jelly over the wound, which suffocates the invaders so that they can be removed with tweezers. Only one type of botflie routinely targets humans but others can as well, though they usually target the intestines such as the ones that specialize in horses. Some other animals can become easily infected by the bacteria or other conditions and die soon after.
Killer Bees
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| Dangerous Bugs in the World |
Widely known and feared, the Africanized honey bee or killer bee has certainly earned its fearsome reputation. Though their sting is just as deadly as an average honeybee, they are supremely aggressive, sending many from the colony to repeatedly sting any perceived threats. In fact, they are so relentless they will sometimes completely abandon the hive as the entire colony pursues an enemy, leaving the nest completely unprotected.
Deaths from bee swarms are disturbingly more common in this species of bee. They were created in the 1950´s when Brazilian scientists cross-bred the southern African honey bee with the European honeybee in an attempt to create a bee that was more suited to the South American climate. Some bees were accidently released into the wild in 1957 and had no problem breeding and multiplying throughout the Americas. They have since bred with many other colonies of bees and are beginning to spread across North America as their African honeybee DNA allows them to quickly build hives and grow their population.
Unfortunately they have also inherited the aggressive personality as well. These killer bees have been know to respond viciously to simple things such as noises and even vibrations from vehicles, equipment, and pedestrians. The good thing is that as bee species continue to decline, more bees are good news for the flowers of the area.
Kissing Bugs
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| Dangerous Bugs in the World |
Not nearly as innocent as they sound, the kissing bug is incredibly deadly because of its tendency to spread the terrible Chagas disease to human populations. Infected with a parasite that causes the disease, they feed on blood during the night and at the same time transfer the parasites to humans. They get their name from their tendency to bite humans near the blood vessel-rich areas of the eyes or lips, though this typically isn’t the kind of makeout people are looking for.
A little larger than the size of a penny, they are mostly found in warm climates, such as the Southern US. I used to live in Florida and saw these all the time but I didn’t know they carried diseases! The chagas disease that they spread has two distinct stages, the first in which common symptoms such as muscle aches, rash, vomiting and other such symptoms may or may not manifest. The second is the chronic stage, which affects 30% of the infected and can cause enlarged heart, and heart rate conditions.
Good news is that this stage can take years to develop, sometimes close to twenty, so if you can make it you’re laughing as you´ve outlived your attacker by at least twenty times as they tend to have a one year lifecycle. If you suspect you´ve been effected there are support centres to which you can send the bug if you can find it to ensure proper treatment.
Locusts
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The name locust summons images of swarms of flying insects that raze everything in site until only nothing is left. This plague however is all too real. They are very similar in many ways to grasshoppers though their tendency to gather in large groups is what truly makes them a menace. The main damage isn´t directly to humans ourselves, but a huge swarm can descend on a farm and devour everything in sight. Crops, grass and even clothes can disappear forever within the giant cloud and lead to mass starvation for the communities affected.These clouds can stretch hundreds of miles across and consume millions of pounds of plants every day, in a vicious feeding frenzy made up of billions of locusts.
Their telltale buzzing sound is the fear of farmers the world over, yet many quickly scramble to construct large fires as the smoke can debilitate a swarm. Interestingly, the locusts are a delicacy in some parts of the world and their bodies can help make up for the lost food they consumed. Considered a natural plague by some the desert variety is especially known for destroying the little crops that can be grown and are known to move large distances in search for food. In fact one particular swarm was noted for traveling all the way from Northern Africa to the island of Great Britain!
Mosquito
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| Dangerous Bugs in the World |
The bane of fishing and camping trips alike this seemly minor annoyance is in fact not only the most deadly insect but one of the most deadly creatures on the entire planet. They accomplish this by spreading diseases such as Zika, West Nile and Malaria where they can cripple a human population, especially in areas where medical treatment is unavailable. Interestingly mosquitos feed mostly on plant nectars but the females use blood to help their eggs grow and can consume up to three times her own weight in blood to nourish them. Though this blood is easily replenished in most working bodies, the diseases that the mosquito can spread are numerous and deadly.
They are attracted to and lay their eggs where there is still water, such as flooded sinks or buckets and can locate human targets by sensing the Carbon Dioxide we exhale. They can even sense our body heat to know exactly where to draw blood! At around 210 million years old as a species, they have been feeding on Dino-DNA long before humans ever entered the scene. In fact, Alexander the Great was believed to have died of malaria which is famously spread by mosquitoes and kills more than a million people a year. As it turns out dragonflies may be our best friends as they hunt hundreds of the mosquitos per hunt and some places even release them into the wild as natural mosquito control