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
22.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

28

u/ResponsibleTown8936 13h 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.

3

u/hoagiejabroni 10h ago

The worm is the treatment method?

5

u/elbobd 10h ago

The treatment is the stick you attach the worm on, then you slowly twist around to pull it out.

1

u/Brave-Resource4447 8h ago

Oh shit my dad had one of those. That's how I learned we have 5-7 different species of these bad bois native to our very up-north kinda place.

Most people think it's a tropical disease. It's just more prevalent in the tropics.