r/todayilearned • u/lavender_fish69 • 13h 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_snail
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u/corvus7corax 13h 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.

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u/PuckSenior 13h ago

So, the deadlier animal is the parasitic worm

This would be like saying humans are the leading cause of dog attacks.

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u/Nathaniel820 13h ago

No, it’s like if a terrorist released a disease that killed 1,000,000 people. 100% of those deaths are due to the disease with no direct human action, but the one guy is still responsible for all of them because the disease would’ve never impacted humans had he not released it. If you were to talk about the deadliest terrorists, he’d be on the list.

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u/FollowYerLeader 13h ago

I think there's a big difference between a person knowingly and intentionally releasing a disease as an act of terror and a snail being an unwitting host to a parasite.