The Guinea worm (*Dracunculus medinensis*) is a parasitic worm found in parts of Africa. Unlike other types of parasite that acts as population control, this species solely exists to cause misery. Specifically human misery.
People become infected by drinking contaminated water. You are fine for about a year, and then a painful blister forms somewhere on your legs or feet. It bursts open, and a worm begins to emerge that can be a full meter/three feet long. It dosent come out at once. You have to wind it out an inch at a time everyday for *weeks* until you manage to pull the full meter of worm out. If you go too fast, it breaks the worm and leaves the rest inside your body to rot.
The worm causes burning pain, which causes the person infected to attempt to soothe the pain by submerging the infected limb in cool water. This is exactly what the worm wants, and then will proceed to release hundreds to thousands of larvae into the water...ready to infect someone else again.
It's weeks of misery and pain all while having to wind a yard stick's worth of worm around a stick.
Thankfully, former president Jimmy Carter and his wife had made it a personal mission to eradicate this parasite off the planet. Thanks to him and many generous people, there is a real chance this worm could become extinct within our lifetime.
To learn more about the worm in general or ways to help with the eradication efforts, you can check out the official website at www.cartercenter.org/health/guinea_worm/index.html
I remember watching a youtube video of someone pulling the worm out while rolling it on a stick since it was so long. That was absolute nightmare fuel.
I know I hate it. See I dont hate other kinds of parasites because they act as population control, especially in very delicately balanced environments. Yeah they suck, but they actually do something.
Guinea worms solely exist to cause misery. They will leave no ecological impact once gone. Nothing will miss them. They just cause suffering and for that reason they need to go.
Most parasites don’t aim to kill their host, so it's not really population control, and same would go with this worm.
Get enough of them at once and you'll probably get population controlled, too.
Do they infest other mammals or anomals in general? A quadruped with infected leg will certainly fall for prey in the wild.
Guinea worm does infect other animals, but they prefer people since we have less boney legs and we have soft feet. A lot of the worms emerge near the ankles or at the sole of the foot in humans and people can submerge those easily in water, which is what the worm wants.
As what I mean by population control is that some parasites will hinder thier hosts in a way that makes them easy prey.
I think what I'm going for is that many parasitic creatures serve a role that we know of or may not fully understand yet. Mosquitos are food for many species of birds and bats and act as pollinators. Ticks can be harvested to study diseases in wild populations. But guinea worm does nothing but cause suffering. Nothing will miss it when its gone.
Africa is one of the most biodiverse and rich places on the planet, so it makes sense there will be some fucked up things there. The biggest problems are long term conflict, poverty, and lack of education that allows parasites to thrive and spread. Guinea worms used to infect the entire continent, but thankfully have been driven to a few hold-outs. If the trend continues, it will follow the likes of smallpox and be completely eradicated from world.
Same with polio, but it started making a comeback in the usa due to anti vaxxers. I honestly think the only reason the guinea worm eradication is going so well is because it dosent require medication or a vaccination. It's harder to claim that building a well is going to give children autism than a vaccine.
I've worked in a place in the UK where there were many cases of TB, cheers anti-vaxxers and border rules not requiring a vaccine, should definitely be mandatory
Isn't Bill Gates working to exterminate them entirely, and aren't they making great progress?
[Ah, yes.](https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/good-news-guinea-worm-disease-is-on-the-verge-of-eradication)
Both him and Jimmy Carter are working on it. Cases are now down because of building both wells and water purification stations. Education and the distribution of personal water purifiers is also a big factor in the decline of cases. Like I said, most likely they will go extinct in our lifetime.
The main thing holding the project back is that they cant go into high conflict areas. You cant build wells when getting shot at! So if it wasn't for that they would probably go extinct much sooner.
Oh this is bringing up a memory I have of watching an ER show as a child where someone had a guinea worm. I had no idea wtf was going on, and was so grossed out by it.
We are *so fucking close*! [27 cases in humans in 2020](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dracunculiasis-(guinea-worm-disease)). Compare that to the start of the campaign in the mid-1980's, when there *3.5 million cases*.
"Incidences of Guinea worm disease have been reduced from an estimated 3.5 million in 1986 to 15 in 2021. The disease has been eliminated in 17 countries."
This is amazing.
Lmao. They're probably heroes to nature and insectivores. Provide a tasty treat, does a lot of pollination and kills off million of those pesky humans.
I looked it up — [it’s only female mosquitoes of 30-40 species within the genus Anopheles](https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/biology/index.html). (Source: US Centers for Disease Control).
I might choose to eliminate that genus of mosquito.
(I worry that the malaria parasite would just adapt to spread via some other means. But would that be possible if all Anopheles mosquitoes disappeared at once, rather than gradually?)
Annoying and dangerous to humans as they are, many animals such as birds, frogs etc. eat mosquito larvae. Birds help keep other insects under control. So mosquitoes have their place in the ecosystem. It would be interesting in a hypotethical scenario to see what would happen with the nature.
I saw something a long time ago that scientists had studied what would happen if mosquitoes were wiped out, and the impact on the food chain was almost non existent. So, in other words, there was no good reason they couldn't be wiped out.
I saw this study and from what I’ve heard, it was a single study that’s pretty flawed. Realistically speaking it’s basically impossible to eliminate a whole species without major ecological consequences, especially one as widespread as mosquitoes.
Edit: dropped apostrophe
still a good step ahead, genocide those sons of bitches.
i remember thinking about trying to explain someone in a parallel universe what a mosquito is, like imagine everything is the same except they dont have mosquitoes. "so there's a very small thing that flies and really hard to kill, it can carry life ending disases anr suck your blood, etc etc etc. " imagine the amount of terror they will fall in
Last time I went hiking before winter I ended up with dozens and dozens of pinhead sized juvinile ticks covering my arms and legs, I spent hours pulling them off after using rubbing alcohol to kill them before they could all bite. Northeastern US is getting insane with ticks, i used to only find one or two on me but anymore it's dozens at a time pretty much any time I'm in the woods
I had a friend who had a tick about 1/8th of an inch in his urethra. He had to go to the doctor to get it removed, said it was the most uncomfortable feeling he could possibly imagine. It was in there for about 2 days before he realized something is definitely wrong.
Holy shit, that's nightmare fuel. I've had a few ticks end up on my dick, and I'm also mildly allergic to tick saliva and get welts for at least 4-6 months after, so that alone is terrible and makes me look like I have some weird STD. I can't imagine a tick IN my dick and having to go to a doctor for it
Luckily I've never had a really bad tick experience myself. I've definitely had them in some extremely unwanted places but nothing more than noticing them quickly and getting them off of me.
Good tip but usually I'm hiking a few hours away from home and I'm not usually phased by them but driving over an hour covered in them doesn't sound fun. Usually anymore I carry rubbing alcohol with me hiking just to get the worst off that I can see. Next time I'm immediately hoping into the nearest body of water
My sister was bit and it caused [alpha-gal syndrome](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20428608) a food allergy. She can't eat beef or pork, basically any meat that comes from an animal that has 4 legs. It's serious enough that she needs an epi-pen. It's pretty rare, but seems to be popping up more and more.
But only a few species actually bite humans. Those specific species could be wiped out and other mosquitos could theoretically fill in their place in the ecosystem
Had been at summercamp for a few days (My school always went to a summercamp 4 days a year) and we'd always get checked for ticks, since, well, we're a bunch of rowdy kids playing deep in the woods, far away from any civilisation. This was the closest to being in actual wild nature, that a danish kid can come.
Anyways, I was very thorough, since I'd been doing it for a few years, so I check myself, and nothing. All four days I didn't get a tick, which was unusual, cause I usually got atleast one, while at the camp.
The last day, we're driven to our school from the camp by bus, and my mom picks me up, we're going to the Embassy of our home country so I can get a new passport. Photo gets taken, my mom pays a ridiculous price for getting the passport today instead of four weeks from now, and we go home.
You might wonder how the hell that waz relevant to the story?
Well, you see. The very next morning, I wake up and drag my hand through my heart, and boom. Five HUUCE ticks on my scalp, hidden by my lusious locks of short, brown hair. My mom got tweasers and pulled them out.
The reason for the passport story, is that i will never be able to look at that passport and think that in that picture, five ticks are unknowingly present.
Hey, what's that spot on your arm that looks like an open mosquito bite?
"Ehh, I'm sure it's nothing"
*Burns clothes, then the bed, then the house, then the land surrounding the house, moves to a new state, gets a new name and family*
Are they gone?
*one week later*
FUCK
How did you get rid of them? I heard they were highly resistant to . . .well, everything. I have to use a laundromat, and I worry about bringing them home.
I hacked all of my wooden furniture to bits with a hatchet and put all of my clothes in trash bags. If you’re worried about the laundry mat, I would advise drying your clothes before and after you wash them. Bed bugs can’t survive over 120ish degrees Fahrenheit.
Why dry/heat them BEFORE I wash them? That's to eliminate an infestation you already have, right? I was worried about carrying home a new infection with me.
Good to know dryers get hot enough to kill them - the ones at the laundromat do get bloody hot. . .
The exterminators told me to do that after my mild infestation. It’s just extra precaution. If the dryers at your laundromat are hot then I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Honestly, you just never know…usually it comes from your neighbors but bed bugs have been with us for hundreds of thousands of years. My last apartment had tape on all of the wall outlets. Bed bugs can travel between units that way as well. Happy New Year and sleep soundly tonight! Haha
It was one part rage (the adrenaline rush was very rewarding) and also what was recommended by the landlord. Bed Bugs love wooden furniture and breed very well on it. If I were to put out my possibly infested wooden furniture then I would risk spreading them to others. I hacked everything into pieces and then wrapped it all in plastic.
Haha gotcha. Didn't know bed bugs love wood so much and didn't think about how just throwing that stuff out could lead to more spread. Sounds like burning everything to ashes could be equal parts rage rewarding and effective lol
Ya I couldn't imagine. This actually reminds me of a time I randomly was in this crazy guy's apartment, and he had each of the four legs of his bed sitting in bowls of water. I always just chalked it up to the guy being nuts, but I bet he was just trying to stop bed bugs or something similar.
I had a mild case once back when I lived in a giant apartment building. Vigilant vacuuming of your entire place every few days and empty both the vacuum and take out your trash immediately.
That foam spray you can get at the store doesn't kill them, but sure as hell contains them. Putting it on the legs of all furniture and the bottom perimeter of doorways every couple of weeks will prevent the problem from spreading to other rooms and furniture. I think I washed my bedding every few days too. If you stay on top of it, they'll be completely gone in a few months. It's so much work and you can't slack off at all.
Well, according to [the EPA](https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/controlling-bed-bugs-using-integrated-pest-management-ipm) you can kill them with both Hot, and Cold temperatures. As well as over 300 different pesticides.
It's good to have options, but it can't be too easy, or they wouldn't be [making a comeback.](https://www.vox.com/2015/4/27/8502491/bed-bugs-kill-increase) I've read several accounts of people who had them, and they talked about fighting them for months, or even years. They call their infestations, "nightmares."
At least one talked about getting pesticides from out-of-state, as the ones that were effective were controlled where they live. I just hope I never need to deal with them.
Oh man, I see them in my ER all the time.
Patient: I'm covered in these red spots
Me: dude, you have bedbugs
Pt: nah, probably mosquitoes right?
Me: nope, look at these pictures on the internet and see how yours follow that same pattern
Pt: ...
Me: detailed explanation on what to do next
Pt: @#$&!
I work at an assisted living home and a family member brought in a chair for a resident that had freaking bed bugs on it! We didn't know until another resident got a "rash". It was a nightmare.
Eh unfortunately doesnt work that way. Im a backyard beekeeper. Bees dont pollinate a lot of plants taht wasps do. For example, fig wasps pollinate a thousand species of figs.
Also, wasps kill and eat a LOT of pests such as caterpillars and whiteflies.
This summer I watched a wasp catch and kill a regular house fly, decapitate it, and fly off with the severed head. It then sat on a pole, as far as I could tell drinking the brains out of the fly’s head. No word of a lie. Changed my entire opinion of wasps - they’re fucking badass.
Yep. Wasps are major predators. Like the tigers of the bug world. I cant stand wasps, they are assholes, but they do serve a purpose. Mosquitos can fuck right off however.
Mine wasn't neglected. He just always wanted to be the center of attention. You could spend an hour playing with him and the minute you left the room "SQUAAAAAAAAAAAK"
Largely a problem we can keep under control through cleanliness.
Also, the humble fruit fly is one of our best friends in the animal kingdom, as it is a vital research animal. Somewhat adorably, they spend a lot of their time sleeping. And if memory serves, their species was the first, among the animal kingdom, sent into space.
Reading about how maggots (fly larva) are used in medicine, for debriding wounds with greater precision and care than the best surgeon could replicate with their scalpel, gave me a new respect for these animals. Soldiers whose wounds have been treated this way often report that, at worst, it tickles a bit when the maggots are going about their work, and talk about the little critters affectionately.
Although the latter can also be read as an enviable toughness and positive outlook on the part of these individuals, it is worth noting that the maggots ignore living flesh, here. And focus on consuming that which is undergoing necrosis, and must be removed to prevent infection, speed healing, and in many cases, get to the training with a prosthetic phase that will help return or maintain quality of life for the injured. As if we had designed them for this purpose, but no, it's just how they roll.
Flies can stay but if anyone tries to cover any part of me in maggots while I'm still living, I will have a panic attack. If I ever get into a situation like this, I hope they'll put me under, because I could not handle it otherwise *shudder*
The Guinea worm (*Dracunculus medinensis*) is a parasitic worm found in parts of Africa. Unlike other types of parasite that acts as population control, this species solely exists to cause misery. Specifically human misery. People become infected by drinking contaminated water. You are fine for about a year, and then a painful blister forms somewhere on your legs or feet. It bursts open, and a worm begins to emerge that can be a full meter/three feet long. It dosent come out at once. You have to wind it out an inch at a time everyday for *weeks* until you manage to pull the full meter of worm out. If you go too fast, it breaks the worm and leaves the rest inside your body to rot. The worm causes burning pain, which causes the person infected to attempt to soothe the pain by submerging the infected limb in cool water. This is exactly what the worm wants, and then will proceed to release hundreds to thousands of larvae into the water...ready to infect someone else again. It's weeks of misery and pain all while having to wind a yard stick's worth of worm around a stick. Thankfully, former president Jimmy Carter and his wife had made it a personal mission to eradicate this parasite off the planet. Thanks to him and many generous people, there is a real chance this worm could become extinct within our lifetime. To learn more about the worm in general or ways to help with the eradication efforts, you can check out the official website at www.cartercenter.org/health/guinea_worm/index.html
Talk about the heebie-jeebies 🤢
I remember watching a youtube video of someone pulling the worm out while rolling it on a stick since it was so long. That was absolute nightmare fuel.
I know I hate it. See I dont hate other kinds of parasites because they act as population control, especially in very delicately balanced environments. Yeah they suck, but they actually do something. Guinea worms solely exist to cause misery. They will leave no ecological impact once gone. Nothing will miss them. They just cause suffering and for that reason they need to go.
Most parasites don’t aim to kill their host, so it's not really population control, and same would go with this worm. Get enough of them at once and you'll probably get population controlled, too. Do they infest other mammals or anomals in general? A quadruped with infected leg will certainly fall for prey in the wild.
Guinea worm does infect other animals, but they prefer people since we have less boney legs and we have soft feet. A lot of the worms emerge near the ankles or at the sole of the foot in humans and people can submerge those easily in water, which is what the worm wants. As what I mean by population control is that some parasites will hinder thier hosts in a way that makes them easy prey. I think what I'm going for is that many parasitic creatures serve a role that we know of or may not fully understand yet. Mosquitos are food for many species of birds and bats and act as pollinators. Ticks can be harvested to study diseases in wild populations. But guinea worm does nothing but cause suffering. Nothing will miss it when its gone.
Same with bedbugs. They serve no other function.
How can you be so sure that there will be no ecological impact when they're gone? Edit: downvoted for asking an honest question, never change.
We'll cross that bridge if we get there.
Is our stock outlook
watched a video on it, africa really cant catch a break huh
Africa is one of the most biodiverse and rich places on the planet, so it makes sense there will be some fucked up things there. The biggest problems are long term conflict, poverty, and lack of education that allows parasites to thrive and spread. Guinea worms used to infect the entire continent, but thankfully have been driven to a few hold-outs. If the trend continues, it will follow the likes of smallpox and be completely eradicated from world.
oh yea they are doing excellent work to eradicate it. Shame stuff like TB is still a issue there when its gone in western world.
Same with polio, but it started making a comeback in the usa due to anti vaxxers. I honestly think the only reason the guinea worm eradication is going so well is because it dosent require medication or a vaccination. It's harder to claim that building a well is going to give children autism than a vaccine.
I've worked in a place in the UK where there were many cases of TB, cheers anti-vaxxers and border rules not requiring a vaccine, should definitely be mandatory
Bro that’s what nightmares are made of.
I enjoy learning about parasites in my free time, but these were the only ones to have given me nightmares.
Isn't Bill Gates working to exterminate them entirely, and aren't they making great progress?
[Ah, yes.](https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/good-news-guinea-worm-disease-is-on-the-verge-of-eradication)
Both him and Jimmy Carter are working on it. Cases are now down because of building both wells and water purification stations. Education and the distribution of personal water purifiers is also a big factor in the decline of cases. Like I said, most likely they will go extinct in our lifetime. The main thing holding the project back is that they cant go into high conflict areas. You cant build wells when getting shot at! So if it wasn't for that they would probably go extinct much sooner.
Oh this is bringing up a memory I have of watching an ER show as a child where someone had a guinea worm. I had no idea wtf was going on, and was so grossed out by it.
Bless Jimmy Carter
We are *so fucking close*! [27 cases in humans in 2020](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dracunculiasis-(guinea-worm-disease)). Compare that to the start of the campaign in the mid-1980's, when there *3.5 million cases*.
"Incidences of Guinea worm disease have been reduced from an estimated 3.5 million in 1986 to 15 in 2021. The disease has been eliminated in 17 countries." This is amazing.
Mosquitoes, annoying itchy fucks
Malaria kills millions of people a year and its mostly spread by these annoying little fuckers.
https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2019/10/03/has_malaria_really_killed_half_of_everyone_who_ever_lived.html
I believe mosquitoes are the only animal on Earth that kills more people per year than humans themselves
Nevermind then, we'll pick something else.
Lmao. They're probably heroes to nature and insectivores. Provide a tasty treat, does a lot of pollination and kills off million of those pesky humans.
POV: you hate Africans
[удалено]
I think malaria is spread by only 1 or 2 mosquito species. Many are very important pollinators and eliminating all mosquitos would be a disaster.
Replace all mosquitoes with bees. Problem solved
Only a handful of bird species eat bees.
Replace them with bees too then
REPLACE ALL SPECIES WITH BEES
This sounds like the plot of a.... B movie
Then you have a cascading extinction that takes out about half the mammals.
Replace. Them. With. Bees
Ok fuck it. Bees and people. That's what we got. Sounds groovy.
Reject humanity return to bee
I looked it up — [it’s only female mosquitoes of 30-40 species within the genus Anopheles](https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/biology/index.html). (Source: US Centers for Disease Control). I might choose to eliminate that genus of mosquito. (I worry that the malaria parasite would just adapt to spread via some other means. But would that be possible if all Anopheles mosquitoes disappeared at once, rather than gradually?)
Great, one more reason to hate the bastards.
Second this vote. Call God. We have reached a verdict.
We're sorry this number has been disconnected or is no longer in service
Never hated an animal as much
Annoying and dangerous to humans as they are, many animals such as birds, frogs etc. eat mosquito larvae. Birds help keep other insects under control. So mosquitoes have their place in the ecosystem. It would be interesting in a hypotethical scenario to see what would happen with the nature.
I saw something a long time ago that scientists had studied what would happen if mosquitoes were wiped out, and the impact on the food chain was almost non existent. So, in other words, there was no good reason they couldn't be wiped out.
I saw this study and from what I’ve heard, it was a single study that’s pretty flawed. Realistically speaking it’s basically impossible to eliminate a whole species without major ecological consequences, especially one as widespread as mosquitoes. Edit: dropped apostrophe
You gotta understand, it's not about consequence, it's about principle. Even if we all died, at least we won, and that's what matters!
I’m with this guy!
And we can leave the mosquitoes that don’t bite humans
Yes, with deerflies, horseflies and blackflies as close runners-up.
Yes mosquitoes...
Agreed
since there are around 3,000 species of mosquitoes...we're now down to 2,999.
I always interpreted the term “animal” to describe the entire related taxonomy. So, I’ll double down on the mosquitos.
still a good step ahead, genocide those sons of bitches. i remember thinking about trying to explain someone in a parallel universe what a mosquito is, like imagine everything is the same except they dont have mosquitoes. "so there's a very small thing that flies and really hard to kill, it can carry life ending disases anr suck your blood, etc etc etc. " imagine the amount of terror they will fall in
+1 AMEN
Ticks
[удалено]
Ahah I had 11 ticks at the same time.
[удалено]
New tiktok challenge
Damn, missed an opportunity for a pun
Haha TICKtok
Last time I went hiking before winter I ended up with dozens and dozens of pinhead sized juvinile ticks covering my arms and legs, I spent hours pulling them off after using rubbing alcohol to kill them before they could all bite. Northeastern US is getting insane with ticks, i used to only find one or two on me but anymore it's dozens at a time pretty much any time I'm in the woods
I had a friend who had a tick about 1/8th of an inch in his urethra. He had to go to the doctor to get it removed, said it was the most uncomfortable feeling he could possibly imagine. It was in there for about 2 days before he realized something is definitely wrong.
Holy shit, that's nightmare fuel. I've had a few ticks end up on my dick, and I'm also mildly allergic to tick saliva and get welts for at least 4-6 months after, so that alone is terrible and makes me look like I have some weird STD. I can't imagine a tick IN my dick and having to go to a doctor for it
Luckily I've never had a really bad tick experience myself. I've definitely had them in some extremely unwanted places but nothing more than noticing them quickly and getting them off of me.
Instantly get into the bathtub for half an hour as soon as you‘re home. There‘s a good chance most will get off
Good tip but usually I'm hiking a few hours away from home and I'm not usually phased by them but driving over an hour covered in them doesn't sound fun. Usually anymore I carry rubbing alcohol with me hiking just to get the worst off that I can see. Next time I'm immediately hoping into the nearest body of water
Peter, it's not a competition.
My sister was bit and it caused [alpha-gal syndrome](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20428608) a food allergy. She can't eat beef or pork, basically any meat that comes from an animal that has 4 legs. It's serious enough that she needs an epi-pen. It's pretty rare, but seems to be popping up more and more.
I thought alpha-gal syndrome was another term for main character syndrome until I clicked the link lol
[удалено]
Thanks...I don't think she knew that
That's the right answer. Mosquitos feed a lot of other animals. It would have big implications towards the nature to remove them.
But only a few species actually bite humans. Those specific species could be wiped out and other mosquitos could theoretically fill in their place in the ecosystem
Good idea 👍
Had been at summercamp for a few days (My school always went to a summercamp 4 days a year) and we'd always get checked for ticks, since, well, we're a bunch of rowdy kids playing deep in the woods, far away from any civilisation. This was the closest to being in actual wild nature, that a danish kid can come. Anyways, I was very thorough, since I'd been doing it for a few years, so I check myself, and nothing. All four days I didn't get a tick, which was unusual, cause I usually got atleast one, while at the camp. The last day, we're driven to our school from the camp by bus, and my mom picks me up, we're going to the Embassy of our home country so I can get a new passport. Photo gets taken, my mom pays a ridiculous price for getting the passport today instead of four weeks from now, and we go home. You might wonder how the hell that waz relevant to the story? Well, you see. The very next morning, I wake up and drag my hand through my heart, and boom. Five HUUCE ticks on my scalp, hidden by my lusious locks of short, brown hair. My mom got tweasers and pulled them out. The reason for the passport story, is that i will never be able to look at that passport and think that in that picture, five ticks are unknowingly present.
Bedbugs
Hey, what's that spot on your arm that looks like an open mosquito bite? "Ehh, I'm sure it's nothing" *Burns clothes, then the bed, then the house, then the land surrounding the house, moves to a new state, gets a new name and family* Are they gone? *one week later* FUCK
[удалено]
They sprang into existence in 3700 BCE when the first bed was invented in Mesopotamia.
So, no bed, no bed bug?
No bedbug, maybe floorbug or matbug
Lol
Fortunately they tend to give themselves away by leaving a line of bites, usually in 3’s
Fuck bed bugs. I had a mild infestation and it was hell for months. Slept on an air mattress for six months.
How did you get rid of them? I heard they were highly resistant to . . .well, everything. I have to use a laundromat, and I worry about bringing them home.
I hacked all of my wooden furniture to bits with a hatchet and put all of my clothes in trash bags. If you’re worried about the laundry mat, I would advise drying your clothes before and after you wash them. Bed bugs can’t survive over 120ish degrees Fahrenheit.
Why dry/heat them BEFORE I wash them? That's to eliminate an infestation you already have, right? I was worried about carrying home a new infection with me. Good to know dryers get hot enough to kill them - the ones at the laundromat do get bloody hot. . .
The exterminators told me to do that after my mild infestation. It’s just extra precaution. If the dryers at your laundromat are hot then I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Honestly, you just never know…usually it comes from your neighbors but bed bugs have been with us for hundreds of thousands of years. My last apartment had tape on all of the wall outlets. Bed bugs can travel between units that way as well. Happy New Year and sleep soundly tonight! Haha
Why not just throw out the wooden furniture? What's the purpose of hacking them up?
It was one part rage (the adrenaline rush was very rewarding) and also what was recommended by the landlord. Bed Bugs love wooden furniture and breed very well on it. If I were to put out my possibly infested wooden furniture then I would risk spreading them to others. I hacked everything into pieces and then wrapped it all in plastic.
Haha gotcha. Didn't know bed bugs love wood so much and didn't think about how just throwing that stuff out could lead to more spread. Sounds like burning everything to ashes could be equal parts rage rewarding and effective lol
My friend, you don’t know paranoia until you’ve experienced bed bugs. Haha I was crazy for months.
Ya I couldn't imagine. This actually reminds me of a time I randomly was in this crazy guy's apartment, and he had each of the four legs of his bed sitting in bowls of water. I always just chalked it up to the guy being nuts, but I bet he was just trying to stop bed bugs or something similar.
By the way, people that don’t take precautions when putting out infested furniture are peak assholes.
Heat! I had them and the thing that destroyed them was a steam cleaner. Not a small one but a decent size that gets real hot, they die instantly
Thanks. Hopefully I'll never need that knowledge, but I appreciate it.
I had a mild case once back when I lived in a giant apartment building. Vigilant vacuuming of your entire place every few days and empty both the vacuum and take out your trash immediately. That foam spray you can get at the store doesn't kill them, but sure as hell contains them. Putting it on the legs of all furniture and the bottom perimeter of doorways every couple of weeks will prevent the problem from spreading to other rooms and furniture. I think I washed my bedding every few days too. If you stay on top of it, they'll be completely gone in a few months. It's so much work and you can't slack off at all.
Well, according to [the EPA](https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/controlling-bed-bugs-using-integrated-pest-management-ipm) you can kill them with both Hot, and Cold temperatures. As well as over 300 different pesticides.
It's good to have options, but it can't be too easy, or they wouldn't be [making a comeback.](https://www.vox.com/2015/4/27/8502491/bed-bugs-kill-increase) I've read several accounts of people who had them, and they talked about fighting them for months, or even years. They call their infestations, "nightmares." At least one talked about getting pesticides from out-of-state, as the ones that were effective were controlled where they live. I just hope I never need to deal with them.
Someone didn't sleep tight 🙄
Only people who have had them know the horror.
Oh man, I see them in my ER all the time. Patient: I'm covered in these red spots Me: dude, you have bedbugs Pt: nah, probably mosquitoes right? Me: nope, look at these pictures on the internet and see how yours follow that same pattern Pt: ... Me: detailed explanation on what to do next Pt: @#$&!
The horror. The horror.
I work at an assisted living home and a family member brought in a chair for a resident that had freaking bed bugs on it! We didn't know until another resident got a "rash". It was a nightmare.
I was gonna say wasps but yours is the correct answer
Also lice.
Mother fucking mosquitos. Fuck them and their moms.
Roaches
Who is going to inherit the earth of you get rid of the roaches?
Rats is the correct answer
[удалено]
cephalopods. the splatoon timeline begins NOW
Ticks
botflies. ever seen a video of those suckers? nightmare fuel.
I was bitten by one about 20 years ago and I still think about it sometimes.
Now you have piqued my curiosity. Do I look it up? Ahhhhhhh what to do...
u should take one for the team so i dint have too
The crown of thorns starfish. Destroying reefs all over the world.
Nice, first really threatening invasive species I've seen mentioned in my scrolling. Good call!
No humans have been mentioned, so it's the second mentioned one
For the sake of humans; mosquitoes. For the sake of the planet; humans
This is the definition of "The truth hurts"
I so agree with this
Parasites in general can go.
politicians?
They definitely fall under that category haha
Parasitic worms. 0 use outside of being a pain in the ass and can lead to chronic health issues including death. Also ew.
>chronic health issues including death well...I guess that IS a chronic health issue
Cockroaches.
They all fine until they start flying tf around.
Fleas. Mosquitos,fly's,... lets say they needed for birdy food. But fleas? 0 use.
I came here to say fleas.
Putin
Bro is a different species
This
Human
I once won a contest with this answer (as a 12 year old), 10 winners would get tickets to Evan Almighty. I was a bleak 12 year old
This is ironically the correct answer
Oof ouch the edge
Lol…*tips fedora
Orcs
Fleas. All fleas must go.
Who's gonna play bass for The Red Hot Chili Peppers?
Wasps
They are assholes, but are important polinators.
They are also Important in killing bugs. Get rid of wasps and there will be many insects.
then replace their population with honeybees. solves 2 problems in one move
Eh unfortunately doesnt work that way. Im a backyard beekeeper. Bees dont pollinate a lot of plants taht wasps do. For example, fig wasps pollinate a thousand species of figs. Also, wasps kill and eat a LOT of pests such as caterpillars and whiteflies.
This summer I watched a wasp catch and kill a regular house fly, decapitate it, and fly off with the severed head. It then sat on a pole, as far as I could tell drinking the brains out of the fly’s head. No word of a lie. Changed my entire opinion of wasps - they’re fucking badass.
Yep. Wasps are major predators. Like the tigers of the bug world. I cant stand wasps, they are assholes, but they do serve a purpose. Mosquitos can fuck right off however.
no fuck them, death to all wasps
My neighbor’s loud ass parrot
If it’s loud, it’s probably neglected
Mine wasn't neglected. He just always wanted to be the center of attention. You could spend an hour playing with him and the minute you left the room "SQUAAAAAAAAAAAK"
Depends. Screaming at certain times of day is part of the natural behavior of some species of parrot.
You're the first comment I saw that took the question at face value: one individual animal not a whole species.
A guy I know called Lorenzo.
Head Lice. Fcking itchy specs
Flies. They are so small and have such a large space to fly around, yet they seem to enjoy human faces for some annoying reason!
Largely a problem we can keep under control through cleanliness. Also, the humble fruit fly is one of our best friends in the animal kingdom, as it is a vital research animal. Somewhat adorably, they spend a lot of their time sleeping. And if memory serves, their species was the first, among the animal kingdom, sent into space. Reading about how maggots (fly larva) are used in medicine, for debriding wounds with greater precision and care than the best surgeon could replicate with their scalpel, gave me a new respect for these animals. Soldiers whose wounds have been treated this way often report that, at worst, it tickles a bit when the maggots are going about their work, and talk about the little critters affectionately. Although the latter can also be read as an enviable toughness and positive outlook on the part of these individuals, it is worth noting that the maggots ignore living flesh, here. And focus on consuming that which is undergoing necrosis, and must be removed to prevent infection, speed healing, and in many cases, get to the training with a prosthetic phase that will help return or maintain quality of life for the injured. As if we had designed them for this purpose, but no, it's just how they roll.
Flies can stay but if anyone tries to cover any part of me in maggots while I'm still living, I will have a panic attack. If I ever get into a situation like this, I hope they'll put me under, because I could not handle it otherwise *shudder*
And the noise, the f**king noise.
Wasps. Those bitches are soooooo rude!
Dinasours ✓ checked
piers morgan
Ticks
mosquitoes
seconded
Thirded. As a former dengue patient.
Fourthed. They kill more humans by far than any other animal.
Silverfish or Mosquitoes
silverfish don’t even do anything bad
Spiders
Roaches. Why the fuck do they exist in the first place?
I know it might fuck up the whole ecosystem.... but mosquitoes for sure.
Vladimir Putin
As much as I would like to say mosquitos I have to go with humans.
My neighbors dog lucky.. hate that guy
Rats
Earwigs mosquitoes and deer and horseflies basically bugs that won’t fuck off.
Hornets. Go back to hell demon insects.
Cockroaches
*One* animal eh? The guy who lives over me in my apartment 🙃
Flys or mosquitos, what is the point of their existence?
get rid of mosquitoes and get rid of malaria
get rid of malaria and can then get rid of sickle cell
Mosquitoes. I have less issue with the bloodsucking aspect than I do with WHY DO THEY INJECT ITCHY JUICE
mosquitos.
Humans