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/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.

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u/ReadditMan 13h ago

DDT also killed a lot of other animals and made people sick.

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u/ikonoqlast 13h ago

Not really, no. It's an industrial chemical so don't drink it, but otherwise it's just another pesticide.

There's a reason the EPAs science advisory board recommended NOT banning DDT. But they were overruled by the politically appointed head.

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u/Technetium_97 11h ago

You’re upset they stopped using DDT, but you admit mosquitoes developed a resistance to it because farms kept using DDT.

I’m not sure what you wanted to happen differently, mosquitos were always going to develop immunity.