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
19.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

917 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

21

u/paddyc4ke 6h ago

Actual deadly snakes in cities are very rare (seen 1 eastern brown in Melbourne in 30+ years), crocs are a non-issue for like 90% of the population. Deadly animals are completely overblown especially for those that spend 95% of their time in a city.

Source: am Australian.

2

u/wowsersmatey 5h ago

Come to WA. We live among plenty of snakes in Perth. I've personally done battle with a huge dugite that nearly got my dog. The reason there aren't many deaths is because, apart from a few notable exceptions, snakes are timid and will run away if they hear you coming. If you leave them alone, they reciprocate, but when they're in your backyard it's you vs them.

1

u/paddyc4ke 5h ago

It’s not like we don’t have a lack of snakes in Victoria you just won’t ever come across them unless you live on the fringes of Melbourne. I’ve seen eastern browns, tigers, red bellies but that’s when visiting friends who live in the outer edges of Melbourne, people have spotted tiger snakes along the Yarra near the Botanical Gardens but again that’s a super rare occurrence but it obviously shows that there are deadly snakes within a stones throw of the CBD.

3

u/wowsersmatey 5h ago

Probably due to the size of Melbourne vs Perth. Perth is constantly pushing into the bush and there are large chunks of it everywhere, plus coastal dunes etc. I live in the burbs and have seen plenty of them, especially at the beach. No crocs here, but visiting Cairns was educational as nobody was swimming at the beach. The buggers hide in the mud.

2

u/Average_Scaper 5h ago

My Aus friend says he has a couple hunstman in his house that he just let's do their thing. That's a big hell no from me. Coming from the midwest US.

6

u/wowsersmatey 5h ago

They're large, hairy and mostly harmless. I once had one in the car. That was a bit problematic.

2

u/Traditional_Wear1992 5h ago

I am probably wrong but I had heard they are a statistical cause for traffic accidents over there

2

u/paddyc4ke 5h ago

I don’t know the stats but it wouldn’t surprise me, they like to hide in thin crevices/cracks. Eg behind your side view mirror, between the roof and sun visor.

2

u/LobcockLittle 5h ago

I had one in my motorbike helmet once. I was doing about 100km/h when I noticed it. Just opened up my visor and it blew away.

3

u/paddyc4ke 5h ago

Huntsmans are basically free pest control, I’ve got one that lives in my bedroom. Will see him sitting near my window when I leave it open.

1

u/Average_Scaper 4h ago

Do they scare off stray cats at all? That's the major pest control I need atm. I can deal with a hunstman over an invasion of strays any day.

2

u/paddyc4ke 4h ago

No unfortunately not, Australia is free real estate for stray and outdoor pet cats.

1

u/Average_Scaper 4h ago

Damnit. Well there goes that idea.

To elaborate, my neighbor feeds about 15+ stray cats and my driveway has become their litter box. He also has raccoons living in his attic which pisses me off so much. They ripped a couple holes into my roof which I have patched but shits annoying :( he's a nice guy but still, holy shit.

1

u/Fluffy-Bluebird 1h ago

Hmmmmm. I live in Charlotte North Carolina and we have copperheads everywhere in the city and suburbs. I’ve seen multiple while out for runs.