The Funniest Thing That Can Kill You
Deadly Snails
Yesterday, we had a small subscriber bump, and I always try to make sure the first post for new subscribers is a doozy. So I pushed this particular story up on the posting list, just for all you newbies!
Ready?
Killer snails.
That’s right - toxic, deadly snails.
Let me start by saying that this pretty much confirms my theory that there’s nothing in nature that wouldn’t actively try to kill us if we weren’t so big.
One of the things that Little Bean loves doing is wading in ponds or the ocean and scooping cool things off the sandy floor. Baby shrimp. Sea glass. Polished rocks.
Ahem… shells.
I stumbled upon a story the other day about a beach goer somewhere in the tropics who picked up a Cone Snail and carried it around all day, not realizing that - listen to this - the creature has a harpoon-like tooth that shoots out and injects toxic venom. They are predatory snails!
And they’ve killed humans. A snail. Killed humans.
There are about 600-700 species of these marine gastropods and they are all venomous.
I mean, look at the picture above. My daughter literally has some of these types of shells in her collection. Empty hopefully!
Here’s a National Geographic video that will utterly terrify you. Seriously, just hang up your swim trunks. The snail is like the hit man of the ocean.
Anyway, there’s no anti-venom for this thing. And apparently, for humans, the extra twist is that the sting itself isn’t painful. People will often not even realize they’ve been stung, you know, until the tingling and paralysis starts.
We’re lucky up here in New England as these monsers are mostly warm water dwellers. But still, it’s like the ocean is just one big water-filled bucket of no thank you. Those shells, though, they certainly are pretty.
As if I didn't have enough to be afraid of with spiders, snakes, and bats! I only made it through half the video.