From one creature that held back the economy in Africa to another that wrought bell in
a Brazilian community, here are 8 tiny animals that can destroy:
Today's video was done in collaboration with Bored Badger.
Stay tuned until the end of the video to find out more.
Number 8 Tsetse Fly Even though tsetse flies resemble common houseflies
in appearance, they are nothing alike when it comes to the dangers they pose for human
beings.
These creatures are much tougher than houseflies, which are usually easily crushed with a flyswatter.
Tsetse flies are equipped with a long proboscis which they use to feed on the blood of vertebrate
animals.
They are known carriers of trypanosomes, organisms that cause human sleeping sickness.
This is a debilitating disease which can result in the swelling of the brain.
It affects thousands of people each year, particularly in Africa.
Historically, the tsetse fly has had a significant economic impact in large regions of sub-Saharan
Africa by inhibiting human settlement and agriculture.
Number 7 bus Caterpillar The bus caterpillar is the larval form of
the southern flannel moth and it can be found in various parts of the United States, Mexico
and Central America.
Its preferred habitat consists of elms, oaks, wild plum as well as numerous garden plants
such as rose and ivy.
It usually measures around one inch in length.
The ‘bus’ part of its name presumably comes from its resemblance to a Persian cat,
due to its long, luxuriant fur-like bristles.
The caterpillar is considered a dangerous insect because the ‘fur’ that covers it's
body has venomous spines which can cause extremely painful reactions upon contact with human
skin.
Some patients have compared the pain to broken bones or blunt force trauma.
More severe reactions can include numbness, headaches, chest pains or difficulty breathing.
Number 6 Tarantula Hawk When asked about the sting of the tarantula
hawk, one researcher described the physical reaction as ‘immediate, excruciating, unrelenting
pain that simply shuts down one’s ability to do anything, except scream.
Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations.’
Tarantula hawks have very large stingers which is why few predators are able to eat them.
According to the Schimdt sting pain index, this wasp owns one of the most painful stings
in the animal kingdom.
Its filling technique, which it mainly employs when hunting tarantulas, is also quite brutal.
It has long legs ending in hooks which it uses to grapple its victim.
The tarantula hawk will then sting its prey, paralyzing it, and drag it to a brood nest
as living food.
Once this is done, the wasp will lay a single egg on its prey, which hatches into a larva
that starts eating at the victim while it’s still alive.
Tarantula hawks can be found in regions ranging from India to Southeast Asia, Australia, Europe,
Africa and the Americas.
They are among the largest wasp species, measuring up to 2 inches in length.
Their bodies have a bright blue-black coloration and bright, rust-colored wings.
These colors act as a warning against potential predators.
Number 5 Irukandji Jellyfish With a bell that rarely exceeds one inch in
width, the Irukandji jellyfish is one of the smallest jellyfish species in the world.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t as-or-more dangerous than its larger counterparts.
It has four thin tentacles which can reach up to 3.3 feet in length.
Unlike other jellyfish species that only have stingers on their tentacles, the Irukandji
jellyfish also has stingers on its bell, a unique adaptation that researchers have yet
to figure out.
Its size and fragility make studying it quite difficult which is why not much is known about
its venom and life cycle.
The fact that the jellyfish is very small and transparent also makes it hard to spot
in the water.
On average 50 to 100 people end up in the hospital from Irukandji jellyfish stings each
year.
Its venom has been described as 100 times stronger than that of a cobra and 1,000 times
more potent than that of the tarantula.
It’s so powerful that it can cause fatal brain hemorrhage.
The symptoms associated with certain species of Irukandji Jellyfish are collectively known
as Irukandji Syndrome.
Aside from physical effects such as severe back and kidney pain, headaches, vomiting,
nausea, or sweating it also reportedly induces a psychological effect described as the feeling
of impending doom.
These symptoms can last from a couple of hours to several weeks and the victims often require
hospitalization.
Number 4 Blue Ringed Octopus When considering its small size of only 5
to 8 inches, it’s hard to believe that the blue ringed octopus is one of the most venomous
animals in the world.
This deadly marine creature has yellowish skin and blue-black rings that change color
as a warning display, whenever it feels threatened.
That’s when the body turns bright yellow and the rings start flashing bright iridescent
blue within a third of a second.
These rapid flashes tell would-be predators that they are taking on an exceptionally dangerous
creature.
Despite their docile demeanor, blue ringed octopi have venom which contains a powerful
neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin.
These tiny creatures hold enough venom to fill 26 adult human beings within minutes
and there isn’t any known blue-ringed octopus anti-venom available.
If that isn’t scary enough there’s also the fact that their bites are tiny and usually
painless.
This means that by the time the symptoms set in, it might be too late.
The effects of blue-ringed octopus envenomation on human beings is devastating and may lead
to nausea, respiratory arrest, heart failure, blindness as well as partial or total paralysis.
Tetrodotoxin, which is 1,200 times more toxic than cyanide, is produced by bacteria in the
octopus’ salivary glands.
Tetrodotxin envenomation can result in the victim being unable to move while still being
completely aware of their surroundings.
Without treatment, bath may occur within minutes and it’s usually caused by suffocation as
a result of diaphragm paralysis.
Number 3 Ticks These tiny arachnids rarely measure more than
0.20 inches but they are very dangerous because of their ability to transmit diseases.
They’re widely distributed all-over the world but tend to prefer warm, humid climates.
There are two major tick families: the Argasidae, also known as soft ticks and the Ixodidae,
or hard ticks.
They live by packing the blood of other animals, including birds and mammals as well as certain
types of reptiles and amphibians.
They have eight legs and oval or pear-shaped bodies that become engorged with blood whenever
they feed.
Ticks are vectors of at least 12 diseases that affect humans and other animals.
They are involved in the transmission of bacteria, viruses and parasites.
Among the many tick-borne diseases there’s typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Colorado
tick fever, Q fever, Lyme disease and others.
Some species, such as Ixodes Holocylus are also venomous and may cause tick paralysis.
Only one other creature surpasses the tick’s disease-barring ability.
Number 2 Mosquitoes It may be hard to believe but the tiny mosquito
is actually the deadliest animal on Earth.
No animal is safe from this blood-thirsty creature as it feeds on mammals, reptiles,
birds, amphibians, even on certain types of fish or invertebrates.
Mosquitoes belong to the Culicidae family and draw their names from the Spanish term
for ‘little fly’.
Females of the species have a tube-like mouthpart, called a proboscis, which they use to pierce
the skin of their victim to consume their blood.
There are more than 2,500 mosquito species and many of them have evolved resistance against
commonly-used insecticides.
They have even changed their feeding habits, feeding outside and earlier, to avoid insecticide-sprayed
homes and bed nets.
It seems that mosquitoes can adapt to whatever human beings throw at them.
These vampire-like creatures are responsible for more human baths each year than all other
animals on the list combined.
This is because mosquitoes are carriers for a plethora of diseases which they can transmit
from host to host.
These include infections like yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria, Zika virus, West Nile
virus, filariasis, and more.
Business magnate and well-known humanitarian Bill Gates commented on how dangerous these
creatures are, stating ‘The worst is malaria, which fills more than 600,000 people every
year; another 200 million cases incapacitate people for days at a time.
It threatens half of the world’s population and causes billions of dollars of lost productivity
annually’.
Number 1 Lonomia Caterpillar Lonomia obliqua, also known as the giant silkworm
moth, is a creature that’s most dangerous in its larval form.
The caterpillar’s bristles inject venom that’s strong enough to fill adult human
beings.
The lonomia obliqua caterpillar measures around 2 inches in length with colors ranging from
brown to green and it’s typically well camouflaged.
Rows of tubercles make up the caterpillar’s body and they are crowned with whorls of detachable
spines that vary in size.
Each of these clumps of spines can pierce the victim’s skin and release potent toxins.
These caterpillars can be found in southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.
It became known worldwide after an epidemic occurred in a community in Rio Grande do Sul,
Brazil.
Local physicians were dumbfounded as numerous patients started coming with gangrene-like
symptoms that manifested throughout their bodies.
Some of them died from massive blood leakage in the brain.
Eventually it was found that the lonomia obliqua was the common factor in all of the incidents.
So far, there have been at least 500 recorded baths caused by the caterpillar.
The toxins in its skin hold potent anti-clotting agents.
They cause massive internal bleeding that spreads through the organs, eventually leading
to compression and brain bath.