Why do the insects let us live?

[Brickjectivity]

I don't know where to post this, so I'm putting it into general discussion. One of my doomsday scenarios for the end of the human race is one in which a mite or other tiny critter develops taste for mammals and eats us all up.

Why hasn't that happened? Or has it?

For example if ants or flies wanted to they could eat most of us. Why haven't they?

 

[ChristineM]

They eat me alive most summers, zappem (false name) insect repellent helps

 

[Twilight Hue]

I don't know where to post this, so I'm putting it into general discussion. One of my doomsday scenarios for the end of the human race is one in which a mite or other tiny critter develops taste for mammals and eats us all up.

Why hasn't that happened? Or has it?

For example if ants or flies wanted to they could eat most of us. Why haven't they?

Oh but they do.....

That's the nefariously evil part......

 

[Brickjectivity]

They eat me alive most summers, zappem (false name) insect repellent helps

Ticks and bedbugs are the worst, but they let me live.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Oh but they do.....

That's the nefariously evil part......

It seems tremendously fortunate for us that the worst case has been diseases caused by insects. The wrong mutation could end us all.

 

[Revoltingest]

I don't know where to post this, so I'm putting it into general discussion. One of my doomsday scenarios for the end of the human race is one in which a mite or other tiny critter develops taste for mammals and eats us all up.

Why hasn't that happened? Or has it?

For example if ants or flies wanted to they could eat most of us. Why haven't they?

Reminds me of the old creationist question....
"If there's evolution, why are there still apes?"

Insects are adapted to other food sources.
Could they adapt to us? Not easily...we'd
be hard to carry off to their nest.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Could they adapt to us? Not easily...we'd
be hard to carry off to their nest.

There isn't enough oxygen to support very large invertebrates, or they could very easily carry us off to the nest. We must assume that they would carve us us up en-situ and not as takeout or that they would kill us and leave most of our carcasses to rot and for other insects to eat.

Anyways the total number of humans has risen dramatically, leading to more possibilities for critters to adapt to killing us. Experimentation is rare, but the lab is larger than ever.

I take your point that they are adapted to other food sources. That is true they are, but they could mutate and rapidly increase as they consume all of those food sources like a great ponzi scheme at the end of which they starve for lack of more to eat.

But I'm not saying you're wrong. Definitely good points.

 

[ChristineM]

Reminds me of the old creationist question....
"If there's evolution, why are there still apes?"

Insects are adapted to other food sources.
Could they adapt to us? Not easily...we'd
be hard to carry off to their nest.

Not sure i want to meet the bug that could carry a human to its nest

 

[Revoltingest]

There isn't enough oxygen to support very large invertebrates, or they could very easily carry us off to the nest. We must assume that they would carve us us up en-situ and not as takeout or that they would kill us and leave most of our carcasses to rot and for other insects to eat.

Anyways the total number of humans has risen dramatically, leading to more possibilities for critters to adapt to killing us. Experimentation is rare, but the lab is larger than ever.

I take your point that they are adapted to other food sources. That is true they are, but they could mutate and rapidly increase as they consume all of those food sources like a great ponzi scheme at the end of which they starve for lack of more to eat.

But I'm not saying you're wrong. Definitely good points.

If more oxygen allowed bigger bugs, tis humans
who would threaten their existence.

 

[Revoltingest]

Not sure i want to meet the bug that could carry a human to its nest

Bigger bugs would be easy to kill off
because their numbers would be far
fewer.

 

[Brickjectivity]

If more oxygen allowed bigger bugs, tis humans
who would threaten their existence.

Not in Africa but definitely over here. We'd kill even the eggs. So we can rule that out as the end of humankind, though it might destroy Africa followed by Asia.

 

[ChristineM]

Bigger bugs would be easy to kill off
because their numbers would be far
fewer.

But bigger, just imagine how much Raid you would need

 

[Brickjectivity]

Bigger bugs would be easy to kill off
because their numbers would be far
fewer.

That is assuming that they don't begin small and grow slowly.

 

[Revoltingest]

But bigger, just imagine how much Raid you would need

The bigger the bug,
the bigger the weapon.

 

[Revoltingest]

That is assuming that they don't begin small and grow slowly.

As bugs grow, so do weapons.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Fungus already grows in human nasal passages and under fingernails. The stuff could wipe us out.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

This Ancient, Nine-Foot-Long, 100-Pound Millipede Could Be the Largest Invertebrate to Ever Live | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine

 

[Nimos]

I don't know where to post this, so I'm putting it into general discussion. One of my doomsday scenarios for the end of the human race is one in which a mite or other tiny critter develops taste for mammals and eats us all up.

Why hasn't that happened? Or has it?

For example if ants or flies wanted to they could eat most of us. Why haven't they?

The moment they develop nuclear weapons, I would start to worry

Why haven't the ants killed all the other small insects, that would probably be a lot easier than killing off all humans, besides that I neither see why they would want that or how it would even be beneficial for them. If anything they should declare war on birds, I think they are the ones that eat the most of them

 

[SomeRandom]

I don't know where to post this, so I'm putting it into general discussion. One of my doomsday scenarios for the end of the human race is one in which a mite or other tiny critter develops taste for mammals and eats us all up.

Why hasn't that happened? Or has it?

For example if ants or flies wanted to they could eat most of us. Why haven't they?

Maybe they’re enjoying watching the circus that is the human existence?
Or they don’t like eating junk food, I dunno

 

[Audie]

Reminds me of the old creationist question....
"If there's evolution, why are there still apes?"

Insects are adapted to other food sources.
Could they adapt to us? Not easily...we'd
be hard to carry off to their nest.

Little you know but much you speak