If all the animals in the world were to wage war on humans, would we stand a chance?, page 1

Only the insects (well, the other arthropods too) would matter. Sure, a few millon might be taken down by large dogs, cougars, lions, tigers, bears, alligators, elephants, cows, etc, but they're no major threat. Anything big enough to individually threaten a human is big enough to easily shoot. Also: they're very rare because the environment can't support many large predators per unit land. Humans have the advantage of being omnivores; 100 meters square per person is sufficient growing space for a vegetarian lifestyle.

Rats and such spread pestilence and disease and eat food supplies, but frankly, I don't see how them having malice towards mankind would make them do that any more than they do now.

Birds are generally weak, fragile things, the exceptions have one major thing in common: they're on the brink of extinction. Crows are probably the most threatening, since they're pretty common yet could still do more than just suicidally run into a person, what with their little talons and all.

Insects are threatening, since they have the capability of breeding to sufficient numbers to eat crops, but can't really be combated directly. Plus, since they do most of the pollinisation, with other animals taking up most of the rest, there would be few viable crops left. Notably corn, rice, peanuts, soybeans; which fortunately enough, can be more or less lived off of for years. Thing is, the only real change would be in the rate of attack by the poisonous insects, since the various herbivorous insects are already doing their damnedest to eat all crops and natural growth in order to fuel their reproduction.

Modern society is actually arranged pretty well for this sort of thing. Most of the dangerous insects can't survive in cities, because they'll starve. Poisionous spiders can kill people, but can't eat them. Depending on how arbitrarially organized the animals get to be, I suppose that they could form a kind of suicidal logistics trail, with combat-worthless animals lining up to be eaten by deadlier animals, but that's kind of wierd. People could just take to sleeping in form fitting neoprene suits, like wetsuits. About the only bugs I can see getting through that are the camel and bird-eating spiders, and mabye some of the beefiest scorpions; none of which are any serious threat to a person, compared to, say, an angry housecat.

Huge numbers of people in rural areas would die in their sleep, at least, in areas populated with large numbers of venomous insects.

The main problem for america is so much of our agriculture is based on cattle, which, more important than being massive and fairly deadly when enraged, are a major source of food that will have to be replaced quickly. Frankly, I thin we could go on factory farming chickens; they're rather feeble, and couldn't hope to do anything about it, organized or not.

Even if everything goes wrong, people could still get by as a last-ditch effort out in the seas and in permanently frigid areas, where most insects can't operate well. The seas are fairly safe; most of the large or dangerous fauna is on the brink of extinction due to whaling, shark trade, and overfishing. As long as people stay out of the water itself, it should be fine. And while humans are tropical critters, our ability to wear clothing makes us some of the best-adapted things around for arctic climates.