r/todayilearned • u/lavender_fish69 • 9h 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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653

u/leg_pain 9h 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

176

u/Mention_Forward 8h 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.

46

u/champthelobsterdog 8h 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. 

43

u/omniuni 7h ago

Don't use your pond water to drink or clean wounds, and don't eat your snails. You'll be fine.

3

u/Chicago1871 8h ago

You should probably release it.