Man, we are putting up rookie numbers compared to those mosquitoes. - ThreadSky

bretdevereaux.bsky.social • 179 days ago

Man, we are putting up rookie numbers compared to those mosquitoes.

We often worry about the wrong things.

People killed annually by
Sharks 10
Elephants 100
Hippos 500
Snails 10,000
Dogs 25,000
Snakes 50,000
People 475,000
Mosquitoes 725,000
🧪
(see alt text)

Comments

publiusmaximus.bsky.social•179 days ago

Those numbers for humans seem really low.

greenclock.bsky.social•175 days ago

Ofcourse this is misleading in so far as that for mosquitos we count infectious disease. If we did that for people tbc alone would outstrip the Sum total of deaths listed here.

greenclock.bsky.social•175 days ago

Our World is not anymore as straightforwardly violent as it used to be.
Most estimates for total violent death both homicide and Armed conflict cap out at about 500k

sfkissinger.bsky.social•179 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/murderbotbot.bsky.social/post/3lbwwukgzzs23

cassepipe.bsky.social•179 days ago

Time to eradicate the (blood-sucking) population of mosquitoes and become #1

tjsomething.bsky.social•179 days ago

My problem with this is that mosquitoes aren't biting people so much they die of blood loss like most non-humans. They're infecting them with disease. If we count the number of humans killed by infectious diseases caught from humans, we should see >5MM from TB, lower respiratory infections, etc.

eigenvalue.bsky.social•176 days ago

On the other hand, my reaction to a hippo being in my house to a mosquito being in my house is quite different.

I should review this diagram next time that happens.

surcomplicated.bsky.social•178 days ago

Given the rapid advances in biotech, it would not surprise me if I live to see the day we invent the means to drive mosquitoes extinct with an acceptably low level of collateral damage (although actually completing the task could take centuries).

eganbur.bsky.social•179 days ago

damn we gotta get killing!

larryskorke.bsky.social•179 days ago

one of the bleaker ironies in ecological policy is that mosquitos are just straightforwardly bad. They're not pollinators, they don't support other niches, if they went extinct that would be just fine, no tradeoffs to doing that. But Doing The Deed is really hard

flyingsquidgoggles.bsky.social•179 days ago

That’s just a lie though, there are mosquito species that are pollinators; with over 3600 species of mosquitoes there are really only a few that drink human blood: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito#Pollination

kentallardjr.bsky.social•179 days ago

Snails?!

kezme.bsky.social•179 days ago

Wikipedia says "Freshwater snails are indirectly among the deadliest animals to humans, as they carry parasitic worms that cause schistosomiasis, a disease estimated to kill between 10,000 and 200,000 people annually."

flyingsquidgoggles.bsky.social•179 days ago

They are getting a serious assist from some Protozoa though

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