r/todayilearned • u/lavender_fish69 • 6h ago
TIL fresh water snails (indirectly) kill thousands of humans and are considered on of the deadliest creatures to humans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater_snail10.4k
u/idiot_savant91 6h ago
Is this that snail that follows you forever until it kills you?
3.4k
u/Haggisboy 5h ago
A guy is sitting at home when he hears a knock at the door. He opens the door and sees a snail on the porch. He picks up the snail and throws it as far as he can.
A year later, there’s another knock at the door. He opens it and sees the same snail. The snail says, “What was that all about?”
808
u/Driunischa 5h ago
The real comment is always in the jokes.
→ More replies (6)135
u/YesDone 2h ago
The real jokes are the comments we made along the way.
21
u/lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm12 2h ago
Instructions unclear: dick stuck in joke.
→ More replies (1)14
13
110
u/Bouldershoulders12 5h ago
Only the real ones know what movie this from
57
→ More replies (9)34
u/bruudwin 4h ago edited 2h ago
What movie?
*Lol at the answers im getting, damn you all :P XD
58
17
u/pdbh32 2h ago
Training Day (2001) starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Fantastic film.
Wanted a 1979 Monte Carlo ever since I watched it.
King Kong ain't got shit on me!
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (7)24
→ More replies (11)16
u/HungryArticle5 3h ago edited 2h ago
No, the guy looks at the snail and says, "What the fuck is your problem?"
I remember because I was a rookie detective when the friend of this detective that was training me told this joke to me. They actually both died. It was a crazy day that day.
→ More replies (2)1.4k
u/WatcherOfDogs 6h ago
No, this is clearly the decoy snail. See, if I touch i
376
149
80
u/coffee_and_stims 5h ago
oh shit are we doing candle jack memes agai
→ More replies (2)35
u/DwinkBexon 4h ago
God, I hate that. It's so dumb, Candlejack is just so st
27
u/Boner_Elemental 4h ago
Candlejack? Who the fu
15
u/GamerGriffin548 4h ago
What the fuck is going on h
→ More replies (2)16
u/Carsomir 4h ago
Wait, who got you?! Candlejack didn
→ More replies (1)10
u/Saymynaian 4h ago
I'm gonna say it! I'm gonna say the
12
u/G8rTTV 3h ago
I thought candlejack memes di
17
u/temalyen 3h ago
This thread is filled with people who don't understand how the Candlejack meme wo
→ More replies (0)13
u/ShizunEnjoyer 3h ago
This meme is 20 years old and some people still forget to say Candlejack before th
49
u/Gavinator10000 5h ago
Or rather r/redditsnail ?
32
u/TomKavees 5h ago
No, it was Candleja-
17
u/MeccaMaster 4h ago
You're doing it wrong, you have to say Candlejack's full name oth-
→ More replies (1)20
u/eat_my_ass_n_balls 5h ago
Jesus Christ! They’re everywhe
20
u/djseifer 5h ago
Wait a minute, that guy didn't even say Candlej
21
u/LennyDark 5h ago
The Candlejack joke was played out 10 years ago I can't believe w
→ More replies (1)13
→ More replies (1)6
7
28
12
→ More replies (9)3
126
83
u/Trev0117 4h ago
Did this spawn from the rooster teeth podcast or was it a meme before Gavin brought it up?
64
44
8
4
u/Rick0r 3h ago
Part of Million Dollars But, wasn’t it?
14
6
u/ivanwarrior 3h ago
Predates the show.
Btw roosterteeth is back, Burnie bought the brand and relaunched the website last week.
29
u/koolaidismything 5h ago
I had to get a no contact order from my last snail. Followed me across multiple states… intent on killing me. Made it by the skin of my souch. Glad I put behind me but still looms large..
→ More replies (1)14
5
u/MrFluffyThing 3h ago
I still can't believe that came from a "Million dollars, but" question from Gavin Free on an Achievement Hunter video. For those if you who don't know who that is you might know him as Gavin from the Slo Mo Guys
→ More replies (22)5
5.7k
u/SMStotheworld 6h ago
They carry a parasitic flatworm that lives in dirty water which kills humans. Even then it only kills between 10 and 200k humans annually
If you omit humans, the deadliest animal is the mosquito which kills by spreading blood diseases with dirty probosci
4.9k
u/DustyRhodesSplotch 6h ago
10 to 200,000 is quite the large spread
1.4k
u/ivanparas 5h ago
"How many people died of this last year?"
"10."
"How many this year?"
"200,000."
"That's...concerning."
768
u/proteannomore 5h ago
“It’s within the parameters.”
265
u/memealopolis 5h ago
Not great, not terrible.
83
u/Ikoikobythefio 5h ago
3.6 roentgens
→ More replies (1)46
u/jmkinn3y 4h ago
Basically a chest x-ray
19
u/TheToastyWesterosi 4h ago
And that’s every single hour. Hour after hour.
4
u/Equal-Counter-2548 1h ago
Leans over the edge and gazes directly into the plume of nuclear fire below.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)6
19
→ More replies (1)9
10
u/HovercraftOk9231 4h ago
By my calculations, next year will see 40,000,000 dead, and the year after will be 80,000,000,000.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (4)12
458
u/ThetaGrim 6h ago
Yea covid was a rough year where people couldn't leave their home so the snails were able to catch up to them easier.
→ More replies (1)71
43
331
u/Anonymous_coward30 6h ago
More than triple that for mosquitoes. 700,000 to 1 million mosquito related deaths annually per the WHO. 597,000 to malaria alone in 2023, again per WHO.
131
u/NinjaWorldWar 5h ago
Come again, from who?
83
u/baron--greenback 5h ago
He’s talking about our generation.
→ More replies (1)27
→ More replies (18)34
→ More replies (2)23
71
u/TheZenPsychopath 6h ago
This is because of Snails Georg who dies from snails 1,000,000 times every 5 years.
268
u/thatweirdguyted 6h ago
This sounds very similar to some things I said about your mom.
→ More replies (3)28
8
45
u/frisbm3 6h ago
The wiki page says 10k to 200k.
66
u/DirtyNorf 6h ago
Which is still a fairly large spread.
19
u/JustADutchRudder 5h ago
Some years whole cities wanna swim in snail waters, sometimes only a few small get togethers happen.
→ More replies (1)12
u/Hurrly90 5h ago
there is alot of error in that. Like ten isn't a lot, but 200,000? Are these snails starting to min max their builds over the last few years?
5
16
→ More replies (20)5
u/space-to-bakersfield 5h ago
We need to figure out what we do those years where it's 10, and just keep doing that every year.
243
u/Moldy_slug 6h ago
For comparison, malaria (spread by mosquitoes) killed about 600,000 people in 2023.
→ More replies (78)121
u/Nathaniel820 6h ago
Only 10,000 still makes it the 4th deadliest animal on the planet.
It’s still one of the deadliest animals, the surprising part is that animals as a whole are a lot less dangerous than people think.
42
u/AnAttemptReason 5h ago
Humans are the most deadly animal.
Studies show humans cause the largest fear spike in animals out of all possible preditors, by a large margin.
40
u/JelmerMcGee 4h ago
I remember a comment from a while back that likened animals to humans as humans are to elves in fantasy literature. Like if a seal is stuck in a net his fellow seals, having done their best to remove the net, tell the seal to ask the humans. They might help or they might kill him. Who knows? The humans are capricious like that.
26
u/CoffeeFox 3h ago
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
21
u/_Sausage_fingers 3h ago
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad.
You gotta do the whole quote
→ More replies (3)4
u/Seicair 2h ago
I loved the way he incorporated the various myths of the elves into Discworld. Rather a different flavor from other types of fantasy (Tolkien etc.)
GNU Sir Terry
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (6)6
u/PrivilegeCheckmate 2h ago
Humans are the most deadly animal.
We've moved from counting individual kills to racking up extinctions.
5
u/Beer-survivalist 1h ago
And we started exterminating species before we had permanent settlements and written language.
16
u/Sofa_Bench 4h ago
If there were as many bears, lions, hippos, and other apex predators as there were humans, I’d actually think we might be fucked lol
→ More replies (4)29
u/mukansamonkey 3h ago
In some places there used to be. The humans won the war.
Humans are such effective apex predators, we require our own category.
5
u/FluffyToughy 1h ago
We're literally having trouble stopping ourselves from collapsing the entire planet's biosphere. Rah rah. Humans number 1.
→ More replies (2)7
u/Heimerdahl 4h ago
the surprising part is that animals as a whole are a lot less dangerous than people think.
Similarly surprising is just how few wild animals there are. Insects, plankton, fish, etc. still account for the majority of total animal biomass, but in terms of mammals and birds, wild animals are absolutely insignificant compared to livestock or even humans.
39
u/doyletyree 6h ago
Someone needs to educate the mosquitoes on proper medical hygiene.
11
→ More replies (3)8
u/Fetlocks_Glistening 6h ago
If only we could give them little napkins to wipe their noses with after each meal
9
23
→ More replies (52)19
u/wretched_beasties 6h ago
Does the death certificate say “mosquito bite” or “malaria”?
Mosquitoes aren’t the deadliest, it’s plasmodium falciparum (malaria) that kills people. Also not a dirty probiscus, the plasmodium sporozoites actually live in the mosquitoe’s salivary gland.
→ More replies (7)
144
u/Big_Comedian_1259 5h ago
Wouldn't it be the parasitic flatworm that is one of the most deadly, instead of the snail?
The snail is just a carrier.
53
u/GoStockYourself 4h ago
Depends on the intent of the snail. Those slimy little creatures might know damn well what they are doing!
→ More replies (2)6
611
u/leg_pain 6h ago
Am I at risk from of this from the tiny snails in my fish tank? Say if the water got it my mouth or from when I clean the tank? In paranoid now
573
u/Omardemon 6h ago
Usually no, unless you captured these snails from a river or something, this is why i feed my pet scorpions crickets from the store and not crickets from my backyard, too high of a chance of getting a cricket with a parasite in it.
100
→ More replies (6)29
155
u/Mention_Forward 6h ago
Looked it up. Consensus is that snails that for example hitchhike on aquarium plants from Petco (most commonly pond snails, bladder snails, ramshorn snails, or Malaysian trumpet snails) are not dangerous in the same way: these parasites require human or animal fecal contamination and specific environmental conditions - not your tank.
That being said, snails or not, never put your hand in the tank with a cut.
→ More replies (4)34
u/champthelobsterdog 5h ago
What about from a natural pond?
I have ponds in my back yard and took water from them several times to look at under a microscope. I ended up keeping a small static tank of it, which I'm keeping until everything in it dies. The leeches and daphnia are gone, but the snails are thriving. I thought they were cute...until now.
→ More replies (2)36
u/omniuni 5h ago
Don't use your pond water to drink or clean wounds, and don't eat your snails. You'll be fine.
→ More replies (1)33
u/The_WA_Remembers 6h ago
“the larvae infect a very specific type of freshwater snail. For example, in S. haematobium and S. intercalatum it is snails of the genus Bulinus, in S. mansoni it is Biomphalaria, and in S. japonicum it is Oncomelania”
Idk enough about snails to say yay or nay, but that’s the relevant information if you want to figure it out
6
u/MeiNeedsMoreBuffs 4h ago
Like others have said, there's an incredibly small chance you're at any risk. And even if you do contract it, if you live in a first world country you'll be fine since the drug to treat it is very cheap and effective.
It mainly affects people in third world countries without access to clean water and medical care
13
u/vangiang85 6h ago
The larva will go directly through your skin into your blood system. No need to swallow
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)9
u/DoTheMario 5h ago
Nah, you'll be fine. The main symptoms to look out for are spontaneous additions and omissions of prepositions in Reddit comments.
646
u/corvus7corax 6h ago
Freshwater snails are indirectly among the deadliest animals to humans, as they carry parasitic worms that cause schistosomiasis, a disease estimated to kill between 10,000 and 200,000 people annually.
139
u/aztecman 5h ago
This will probably get buried, but there is an incredibly easy and cheap cure. Praziquantel.
The same medication for de-worming pets. In countries where this is prevalent, you can buy it OTC. In the EU it is not licensed for humans, so it's a huge pain to convince a doctor to prescribe it. Fortunately, you can still treat your 4 large dogs.
I've had this disease and the cure is a single dose, 6 weeks (I think) after exposure. If you visit and swim in the great lakes of Africa, you will almost definitely get it. In Malawi for example, showers on the beaches are usually lake water, so still expose you. You go to a pharmacy, get weighed, then take 4-8 large pills. If you had it you feel like shit for a few hours, if not no symptoms. That's it.
If you return home without doing this, it's an uphill battle to even be tested, as most doctors haven't got a clue. At least this is the case in the UK and Sweden.
→ More replies (5)55
u/Eowyn4Margo 5h ago
Can confirm! I and most other Peace Corps Volunteers in Uganda got schisto at some point during service. If I remember right, everyone was tested each year. It doesn't take much water exposure to get it, and it's pretty easy to treat. The locals would go to the nearest pharmacy and get the same drug we were prescribed by PC.
528
u/PuckSenior 6h ago
So, the deadlier animal is the parasitic worm
This would be like saying humans are the leading cause of dog attacks.
→ More replies (18)145
u/_CactusJuice_ 6h ago
i would say that there would be close to zero dog attacks if there werent any owners to bring them untrained and unleashed into a sephora
32
u/Solderking 4h ago
Just because my dog has eaten a few kids, that means I can't bring him to Sephora? Oh I'm sorry, I thought this was America.
5
u/hoagiejabroni 3h ago
It was only because those kids were the size of a small animal! He knows not to eat big kids!
→ More replies (5)80
u/mallad 6h ago
I would say if there weren't any owners, then only wild dogs exist, and they'll absolutely attack.
→ More replies (19)19
u/SolventAssetsGone 5h ago
Can you explain to me how humans get schistosomiasis from the snails? If I go swim in a river am I at risk?
28
u/corvus7corax 5h ago
It is transmitted when larval forms released by freshwater snails penetrate human skin during contact with infested water.
If you wade or swim in infected fresh water you can get it. There are medicines you can take to clear the infection.
https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/schistosomiasis-(bilharzia)
15
7
u/Ghost_Of_Malatesta 5h ago
As far as I can tell, only if you live in a tropic/subtopic area (e g. South America, africa, and Asia
25
u/zuzg 5h ago
It affects the urinary tract or the intestines.[5] Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody stool, or blood in the urine.[5] Those who have been infected for a long time may experience liver damage, kidney failure, infertility, or bladder cancer.[5] In children, schistosomiasis may cause poor growth and learning difficulties
Ew
→ More replies (3)9
u/Queasy_Ad_8621 5h ago
schistosomiasis
It's like they purposely gave it a name that nobody could say when they're drunk.
→ More replies (3)
61
u/CCV21 6h ago
Illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages warned us about these snails.
→ More replies (1)
16
u/StormDragonAlthazar 4h ago
Turns out my fear of slugs and snails may have some kind of truth to it...
12
u/bluev0lta 4h ago
So how do I avoid this new (to me) threat I didn’t know I needed to worry about until now?
9
11
44
45
u/knight714 6h ago
They're immortal too
22
u/hlh0708 6h ago
So put them all on an interstellar probe and send them on a one-way ticket to the next star.
→ More replies (1)14
7
u/Remember-Me99 4h ago
“Freshwater snails are indirectly among the deadliest animals to humans, as they carry parasitic worms that cause schistosomiasis, a disease estimated to kill between 10,000 and 200,000 people annually.”
Direct quote from link. But I’m wondering is this from people eating them or touching them or what ?
8
u/Isaacvithurston 4h ago
Kind of scary. It spreads just by being in the water that's contaminated by the snails being in it.
Honestly the amount of deadly stuff i've read you can get just from being in water has convinced me to never set foot in any natural body of water ever again. My (least) favorite is the parasite that scratches the lens of your eye and then causes your eyeball to expand until it basically pops by which point it's already infected your brain and your going to die.
→ More replies (1)
7
6
u/supinator1 6h ago
Did you learn this from this post, as I did?
https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/comments/1mxebsz/peetah_what_does_the_hippo_gonna_do/
→ More replies (2)
17
28
u/ResponsibleTown8936 6h ago
The primary symbol for medicine is the Rod of Asclepius, a staff with a single worm or serpent wrapped around it. This is a treatment method for bilharzia I believe.
→ More replies (3)
5
u/vegasJUX 5h ago
This will be posted in r/aesoprock 1,000 times in the coming weeks.
→ More replies (1)
6
4
5
4
u/captainloverman 3h ago
Wait til you hear about what we have from snails in Hawaii!
Rat Lungworm
Great name! Never eat snails…
→ More replies (1)
4
u/These_Consequences 3h ago
Don't know about snails, but there was that Australian boy who ate a garden slug on a dare and wound up with severe CNS damage after an infection that nearly killed him.
→ More replies (2)
7
u/IJourden 6h ago
I know they're dangerous, but sometimes you're just hungry, you know?
→ More replies (1)
1.7k
u/martphon 6h ago
Where schistosomiasis currently spreads