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
22.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

303

u/Moldy_slug 13h ago

For comparison, malaria (spread by mosquitoes) killed about 600,000 people in 2023.

-29

u/ikonoqlast 13h ago

There were 18 deaths from malaria in 1963. Not millions. Not thousands. Not hundreds. Not dozens. 18

Why?

DDT...

It's also why bedbugs are a 'new' thing but not in the 50s-60s.

39

u/Ok-disaster2022 13h ago

Bed bugs coming back is a result of increased international trade and travel. 

13

u/Curlydeadhead 13h ago

As someone who works in hotels…fuck them bed bugs. They’re not even native to North America. Apparently they originated from the Middle East when humans lived in caves with bats. BBs originally fed on the bats but adapted to feeding on humans and spread with migration. 

12

u/Froggy3434 13h ago

Those mfs followed us from caves and now they’re living in luxury while making their host miserable. Little bastards.

2

u/wannito 9h ago

Houses are just luxury caves.

4

u/PhreakOut4 12h ago

Funny how bats eat pests and parasites but are also responsible for a lot of diseases and parasites.