The World's Deadliest Animal: It may surprise you!

a reply to: rigel4

I can see it. I'm not much of a cat person and I can see them carrying disease. But, that's just me, not to piss off the cat lovers.

To be real technical, life is the #1 cause of death worldwide by a vast margin.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
It's a damn shame that in the 60's Malaria was almost wiped out with the use of DDT. How many people have died because somebody wrote a book based on flawed science and the director of a new Federal Agency decided to flaunt his new found power?

Monsanto's baby DDT was SUCH a great thing.

It was in fact poisoning the entire environment from the fish, to our water table, to our feed animals and ourselves as we ate/drank everything that the DDT poisoned while the insects were becoming immume to DDT, to heptachlor, toxaphene, and dieldrin. Don't forget DDT was a replacement to the more effective arsenic.

Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" has been proven accurate by all modes of inquiry. Once the pressure due to the overuseof all the listed toxins was lifted, the ecosystems cleared once the half life passed (15 years for DDT).

But keep believing what Monsanto wants you to believe. Roundup is quite tasty I hear, it goes great on every food item so feel free to add as much as you'd life for flavor!

Derek

originally posted by: rigel4

originally posted by: o0oTOPCATo0o
a reply to: rigel4
Domesticated House Cats.

True

Ah, this is why I keep my little dears inside.

Then, they can practice their murderous instincts on any mice who think this place looks great to winter over in.

I do not really think of those people being killed by mosquitoes. The people are killed by diseases, which the people may or may not have gotten from a mosquitoe. If they did, the disease killed them, not the insect. At least that is how I look at it.

a reply to: Rezlooper

Interesting general knowledge boost, S+F educational and entertaining now were did I put that fly swat.

originally posted by: JiggyPotamus
I do not really think of those people being killed by mosquitoes. The people are killed by diseases, which the people may or may not have gotten from a mosquitoe. If they did, the disease killed them, not the insect. At least that is how I look at it.

Except that some of those diseases rely on mosquitos to get around from host to host to such a degree that it's even been shown that the malaria parasite, for example, causes a mosquito's behavior to alter to increase its biting behavior increasing the chances of the parasite being passed on to as many hospitable hosts as possible before the mosquito's immune system can affect the parasite in any negative way.

So, yeah, the mosquitos are to a small part complicit in the disease process and culpable.

originally posted by: rickymouse
I've killed a lot of mosquitoes over the years. So have many people. We kill a hundred times more mosquitoes than they kill us.

And the moment we discover they are self-aware I'll feel really bad about it but until that day arrives...

-Peace-

a reply to: Rezlooper

Mosquitoes and Men.

Sounds like a good title. [+S&F]

a reply to: Rezlooper

the mosquito beats out us humans as the world's deadliest animal

Can't say I'm surprised, I've known this for years.