A new species of insect that was not there. New attack on WhatsApp: people are being scared by a deadly water bug and a virus "Dance of the Pope. The process of hunting and feeding

Do you know all your neighbors? Sure? Some of them are so small that you just can't see them. Insects live in almost every home. It's a fact: even if you can't see them, it almost always means that the "roommates" are just very successful in hiding. In some cases, insects in an apartment are absolutely harmless, but some of their species pose a serious danger not only to food and things, but also to the person himself. In general, get acquainted!

For thousands of years, people have sought shelter, starting with the first cave, then building shelters from tree branches and leaves, and making tents from animal skins. Time passed, and additional tools were developed, mankind began to build houses from strong wood and stone, houses appeared. And always, from the very first dwelling, various insects lived next to a person. Today we see them uninvited guests and prefer to live without them. But if you think about it, they were before us, and they will be after us. Here is a list of 15 little creatures that you might share your home with. They are also called synanthropes (not domesticated plants and microorganisms whose lifestyle is associated with a person and his housing, for example, cockroaches, house flies, house mice, bed bugs).

15. Spiders

Spiders are probably one of the most common creatures we share our homes with, and some of these arachnids will appear on this list more than once. In nature, there is a great variety of spiders, more than 45,000 various kinds. In general, modern spiders have settled around the world over the past 200 million years, which is mainly the reason for their wide distribution and diversity. The spider does nothing wrong in the house, sometimes it even benefits - it catches flies. Our ancestors had a huge variety of signs associated with spiders, mostly positive. They say spiders are harbingers of good things. But, probably, if you trust the signs too much, then you will completely overgrow with cobwebs.

14. Ground beetles

Just like spiders, beetles are very ancient and perfectly adapted creatures for survival. There are more than 40,000 species of ground beetles alone in the world, and these insects come to our homes without an invitation. The most common is the grain beetle. They usually cause damage to crops in the fields, but are increasingly found in ordinary apartments. The grain beetle crawls into the apartment only if it likes the living conditions. As soon as the insect enters the house, at nightfall it goes to look for food (crumbs, food remaining on the table, cereals). Ground beetles interfere with sleep, rustle, fall from the ceiling onto the bed or right on you. And if they have found food, then the next step will be their reproduction. So, if the grain beetle appeared in the house, you need to urgently take action.

13. Crickets

The wise cricket, who gave advice to Pinocchio, probably looked somehow different. And ordinary crickets are creepy insects, sometimes huge. A popular sign says that if a cricket is wound up in a house, then this is fortunately and well-being. But people who have been visited in large numbers by this "happiness" do not share this point of view and are looking for ways to get rid of them. About 2.3 thousand species of these insects are known in the world, of which only about 50 are found on the territory of Russia. Most of them live in subtropical and tropical countries. Our most famous species are field cricket and brownie cricket. Brownie cricket in the southern part of the country lives both in apartments and in nature. In the central and northern regions, he lives only in houses next to a person, while giving preference to old warm rooms with high humidity. These insects live and breed well in warm basements flooded with water. Sometimes crickets can spoil food and even things in the apartment, just like moths. Therefore, although popular belief does not advise offending them, it is better to bring out crickets. Unless, of course, you liked the "night concerts" that crickets usually arrange.

11. Carpet Mite

Scientists have found more than 1,000 different types of house mites, and all of them cause great harm to humans, and all year round. Any carpet or carpet perfectly collects dust, it accumulates in its villi and even daily cleaning will not give a positive result - dust and mites will still remain there. Ticks, unlike most insects on this list, are very harmful to humans. The mites themselves are able to leave behind their waste products in the form of feces, which contain digestive enzymes, they destroy cells human body and can cause severe allergies and asthma. The harm caused by carpet mites is not limited to allergies: conjunctivitis, allergic rhinitis, atypical dermatitis, and others can develop. It's easy to deal with them - throw away all the carpets and upholstered furniture, Once and for all!

10. Dark-winged mosquito

The main harm is squeaking and disturbing sleep! Thank God, mankind has invented many ways to get rid of mosquitoes. Mosquito nets, repellents and fumigators are a whole industry. Arrange fresh branches of elderberry, bird cherry, Caucasian chamomile or basil in the rooms, and place a container with tomato seedlings or geraniums in a pot under the windows and on the balcony. Mosquitoes do not like the smell of these plants, so they will want to leave your house as soon as possible. According to folk omens, these small, disgustingly buzzing bloodsuckers - mosquitoes - are capable of bringing not only absolute harm, but also benefit, predicting the weather and future events. Clouds of mosquitoes - good weather tomorrow. Painful mosquito bites and a particularly active buzzing of bloodsuckers - to soon bad weather and night rain.

9 Spitter Spider

As previously mentioned, there will be more than one species of spider on this list. Spiders of this species catch prey by spraying a liquid onto it, which renders it harmless by freezing on contact into a poisonous and sticky mass. You can observe the habit of spiders to swing from side to side. They do this in order to wrap their prey. Most spiders are only capable of producing silk, but Scytodes spitting spiders are an exception. Together with silk, they release poison from their mouths, and silk strands impregnated with toxin, falling on the victim of a spider, fetter it. These spiders are not dangerous to humans, they do not weave grandiose traps, and they look unremarkable. But still, they have one feature - during the hunt, they "spit" their prey. It may sound a little harsh, but it's true. For this they got their name "spit". Spitting spiders live in both warm tropical and temperate regions, including Russia, in human homes, where it is warm.

8. Clothes moth

The moth inhabits houses and is a household pest whose caterpillars spoil fabrics by eating them and gnaw on silk upholstery of furniture. Damage to products is caused only by caterpillars, because adults are deprived of a gnawing type of mouth apparatus. At dark night time, adult moths fly to an artificial light source. According to some data, room moth caterpillars also feed on plant substances, namely grains of wheat, barley, oats, corn, flour and dry bread. The house moth is widespread worldwide, this species Lepidoptera is a serious pest in human homes. They feed on clothing, carpets, rugs, and upholstery, as well as fur, wool, feathers, and miscellaneous items such as animal bristles used to make toothbrushes and piano fibre.

7. Woodlice

Generally speaking, wood lice are not insects (they belong to crustaceans), but they lead approximately the same lifestyle as cockroaches. When threatened, they collapse, simulating death.
In most cases, wood lice start up only in those apartments where it is constantly damp, for example, water is leaking from pipes. These insects are excellent indicators of various plumbing failures and flange depressurization. The appearance of wood lice in the apartment, first of all, should worry lovers of indoor flowers, because if measures are not taken in time and removed, the plants will die soon. First of all, these insects harm moisture-loving tropical plants that have a thin and delicate root system (orchid, fern, cactus), hitting it, so if you have just such plants, then you should fight more actively.

5. Ants

At different times of the year and different regions countries in an apartment, and even more so - in a private house - you can often meet representatives of various types of ants. Very often, ants in an apartment are random guests brought in on clothes or with things. Among them are insects. different sizes and flowers. However, the real pest in the apartment is only the so-called pharaoh ant - independent view heat-loving small ants, which in our latitudes, in addition to residential heated premises, cannot live anywhere. These red ants in the apartment are a real problem: they are numerous, spoil food, can carry pathogens of various diseases, and besides, they are excreted with great difficulty.
In one colony of domestic ants, several dozen queens and up to 350,000 workers can live. The reasons for the fact that red ants appear in an apartment, although not numerous, can be found in almost any home. That is why small red ants successfully conquer more and more new areas and are likely to appear in any apartment, even the cleanest one.

4. Silverfish (common silverfish)

You may have seen them somehow in the bathroom or toilet if you went there in the middle of the night (they quickly run away when the lights are turned on). Those thin, silvery, little things on the floor? Do you remember? They are called silverfish. Like most of the other creatures on this list, silverfish don't pose any real harm to us, they don't bite. No cases of contact identified negative impact on human health. Eat foods of plant origin containing starch or polysaccharides; but they may not eat anything for months. Their diet may include sugar, flour, glue, book binding, paper, photographs, starchy fabrics. From warehouses can be brought into the house through the purchase of toilet paper or paper napkin cartons. Harmless to humans and pets and are not carriers of disease, but may damage wet paper.
Their scientific name is "common silverfish" (lat. Lepisma saccharina). It is believed that silverfish is one of the oldest living insects - its ancestors lived on Earth more than 300 million years ago, back in the Paleozoic era. Silverfish prefer damp and dark places, if the house is dry and light, then there will be no silverfish there.

3. Cockroaches

The remains of cockroaches are, along with the remains of cockroaches, the most numerous traces of insects in Paleozoic deposits. In addition, cockroaches are the earliest known Polyneoptera, possibly descending from an ancestor of the entire subcohort. They have always been and will be on Earth. More than 4600 species of cockroaches are known; especially numerous in the tropics and subtropics. On the territory of the former USSR - 55 species. IN last years popular reports of a decrease in the number of certain species of cockroaches in the CIS (they say they completely left apartments in St. Petersburg and some other cities - no one was upset, but the reasons are interesting).
A number of cockroaches live in human dwellings, being synanthropes, for example, a red cockroach (Prussian), or a black cockroach. Others are brought with tropical products to temperate countries and sometimes take root in heated rooms (American cockroach). Cockroaches can damage food, leather goods, book bindings, indoor and greenhouse plants. Some cockroaches, feeding on various garbage, including feces, are carriers infectious diseases(for example, dysentery) and eggs of worms.

2. Spider-harvest

Harvest spiders building trapping webs are ubiquitous. They hang upside down on their messy, tangled, uneven web. Webs are built in dark damp niches of caves, trees and under stones, in dens abandoned by mammals, for example, in cellars and various buildings. In human homes, they like dry and warm places near windows. How dangerous are harvester spiders to humans? Suffice it to say that what poison they have, they spend exclusively on their victims, inflicting a paralyzing bite on them. Nothing more is enough for him. The main reason for declaring war on arachnids is arachnophobia. Some people do not even tolerate them visually, in others, a creature that has fallen on the body causes panic fear. The problem is so serious that psychologists are dealing with it.

1. Flycatcher

The common flycatcher, also known as the domestic centipede, is often found in private houses and cottages, and is also found in apartments. Due to its large size, repulsive appearance and high speed of movement, this insect, which suddenly appeared in the house, often terrifies the residents. But the domestic centipede is a peaceful and completely harmless insect. Usually they appear in search of food from the street or from a neighboring apartment. If centipedes can find a permanent source of food in the house, then there is a high probability of their appearance in this room. Especially often centipedes are found in private houses, settling in basements, basements and underground floors, from where they go hunting, moving around all the rooms.

At the end: "Let's be careful, forward, inform our friends" - this is a traditional addition to horror mailing lists. Russians regularly become recipients of such messages, forward them to each other, despite the fact that they guess that, most likely, this is a fake, they say, it’s better to be careful. Psychologists believe that the main reason for this behavior is unwillingness to think and loneliness.

From terrorists from Syria to pills from Israel

18 suicide bombers sent to the cities of Russia, a mass action of the Blue Whale suicide group, during which five thousand children were supposed to commit suicide, poisoned tangerines from Turkey, paracetamol from Israel with a wire inside, chewing gum with drugs that are offered to children in schools - this is only a small part of all the horror stories that are distributed in instant messengers and social networks.

One of the last appeared in Kazan before the start of the summer holidays. School groups are actively sending out a message about the appearance of a new species of insect, from the bite of which "a person goes crazy and dies within two hours." The message is accompanied by a photograph of a beetle with a pimply back and the caption: “Show the children, let them not touch it with thoughts that it is a hedgehog.” To enhance the effect, the spam kit also includes an image of a palm and fingers dotted with black holes - apparently, traces of pricks from the hedgehog.

“This insect is a giant Belostomatidae water bug. It grows up to 15 centimeters in length. Despite not very appetizing appearance, this insect is considered a delicacy in some Asian countries. The bite is very painful, but not fatal. This is a tropical creature, there are no giant water bugs in our area, ”says the biological encyclopedia.

The effect increases many times if officials join the distribution of the message. So, in 2015, a panic began in Tatarstan over a report about the “death of 12 children due to drug allergies”, which came from the head physician of the Naberezhnye Chelny Medical and Sports Dispensary Rafis Akhmetzyanov. It turned out that the head physician's secretary, having received a message from her friend on WhatsApp, decided to do a "good deed" and send it from her boss's office mail.

On the eve of the global attack of the WannaCray virus, another message about the dangers from the worldwide Web appeared:

"Tell all the contacts on your list not to accept a video called "Dance of the Pope". This is a virus that formats your mobile phone. Beware, this is very dangerous. They announced it today on the radio. Print this msg as much as you can!"

As you can see, it looks like another fake message calling for urgent warning of relatives and friends about the new virus ivchetoo 225 and ivchetoo 05.

In this case, it was not difficult to identify the source of the stuffing, but usually the authors of such mailings remain unidentified. Although it is difficult, according to Andrey Prozorov, an information security expert, to do this, it is possible.

If we are talking about instant messengers, then special protocols can be used that enhance security, and it becomes more difficult to figure out who sent it. It is necessary to use specialized software products, services that allow you to identify the emergence of new groups, new activities, new trends and hashes in social networks, and from there you can see who was the primary source and work with him. In general, this is laborious, but it is still necessary to control and monitor social networks, - Andrey Prozorov believes.

While in Russia there is no practice of bringing the authors of panic messages to justice, moreover, they cannot be found. In previous cases, the police only went after distributors. In November 2015, after a message about 18 suicide bombers that sowed panic (it is interesting that after the terrorist attack in St. Petersburg on April 3, the same message began to be sent again), the representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Elena Alekseeva, wrote on her Instagram page that Initially, the information began to spread in Tatarstan and reached Moscow by the end of the day. A day later, the police reported the arrest of the author, later it turned out that the woman had received the message from her friend in the same way, she was simply spreading it more actively than the others in online communities.

At the end of March, Anton Gusev, a participant in the Dom-2 TV show, was detained for sending out about 5,000 children who are going to commit suicide one day. According to Life, some acquaintances turned to Gusev in order to distribute the newsletter. The implication was that in this way she would be able to reach the maximum number of people due to the popularity of the author. According to preliminary information, Gusev will not be held liable, as he did it without criminal intent.

Mailings that evoke emotions - fear or compassion - receive the maximum distribution. Suffice it to recall the message in which they called for the removal of 150 thoroughbred puppies from the kennel, otherwise they would allegedly be euthanized. According to Pavel Afanasiev, Associate Professor of the Department of Psychology at KFU, the epidemic of horror stories is caused by a lack of critical thinking. When people receive messages, they are too lazy to think and analyze whether the message can be true, it is much easier to click on the “forward” button.

Many experts say that the population has a low level of critical thinking. A person cannot analyze how correct the information is, takes everything at face value, and instead of turning on critical thinking, turns on an emotional, affective reaction. The position of a mature person is to take responsibility and think, but this is more difficult than just reacting emotionally, says Pavel Afanasiev.

The second moment - oddly enough, loneliness. By forwarding a message, a person feels like a part of a society united by some idea or fear.

The launch of such horror stories is a hidden request for unity, for the elimination of one's loneliness. A person infects another person with his emotions and understands that he is not alone, that there are other people nearby who experience similar feelings. It's like in a cartoon about a kitten named Woof: “What are you doing here? Afraid. Let's be afraid together." If someone next to you is also afraid, then you are not so defenseless, because you are not alone, but you are afraid together, - says Pavel Alekseev.

Online hysteria can turn into a nightmare real life. So, in Tatarstan, through instant messengers, they almost brought down banking system, after the collapse of Tatfondbank, a message appeared with calls to urgently withdraw money from the banks of the republic. The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the detention of the authors of the mailing - they turned out to be two men, residents of Naberezhnye Chelny and Almetyevsk.

There are signs of fake information that are visible to the naked eye. If the message is replete with the phrases “URGENT!!! Pass it on to all your loved ones!!! Make the maximum repost! Send it to whoever you can!” - most likely, the message is a fake. As well as messages without specifying the author, they usually begin or end with the words: “I have a friend in the police, he said that ...”, “My husband’s sister works in a bank, they were warned that ...”, “Teacher 2B asked everyone to report..."

Along with false reports designed to sow fear, real ones are also spreading on social networks. One of the latest, for example, is a CCTV footage of a man approaching a boy at a music school. Then it turned out that the suspicious type was not a pedophile, as his worried parents managed to christen him, but a bum from Dzerzhinsky near Moscow, asking the children for money for a drink. The message spread all over Russia, and parents in every city were sure that the incident had happened to them.

In fact, locating the scene was easy. The message does not indicate the city and number of the "musician", but there is the name and surname of the school principal who asked to distribute the video - we hammer it on the Internet - and everything falls into place.

In the same way, in Kazan, they were looking for the mother of the boy Gleb from the fourth entrance of house number 5 on Zarechnaya Street. It was enough to open a map of Kazan to find out that there is Zarechnaya Street in the city, but this is a private sector, and there cannot be any multi-entrance building there. As a result, it turned out that the case was in Novosibirsk in January 2016, the boy's mother was found within a couple of hours. Since then, Gleb has "settled" on the Internet, he is still being "sought" either in Nizhny Novgorod, or in Tomsk, or in Tyumen.

In the photo: This insect is a giant water bug Belostomatidae, according to the biological encyclopedia. Photo nnm.me

The millions of species of insects that live on earth today play a vital role in the ecosystem of our planet. Although most of them are safe, some can cause a lot of trouble for a person, and some can be poisonous and even deadly. From familiar ants and flies to more exotic beetles, here's a list of the 25 most dangerous insects in the world.

Post sponsor: . All series!

1. Termites

Termites do not pose a direct danger to humans, they play an important role for the environment, moreover, in some cultures they are even eaten. But at the same time, baby termites can cause enormous damage to infrastructure, sometimes making houses completely uninhabitable.

2. Lice

3. Black-legged tick

Every year, the black-legged tick infects thousands of people with Lyme disease, which starts with a rash around the bite that looks like a bull's eye. Early symptoms of this disease include headache and fever. WITH further development disease, the victim begins to suffer from problems with the cardiovascular system. Few die from these bites, but the effects can continue for years after the unpleasant encounter with the tick.

4. Army ants

The first creature on our list that is dangerous in the literal sense of the word are roaming ants, known for their predatory aggression. Unlike other ant species, roamers do not build their own permanent nests. Instead, they create colonies that migrate from one place to another. These predators constantly move during the day, preying on insects and small vertebrates. In fact, the entire combined colony can kill more than half a million insects and small animals in one day.

5. Wasp

Most wasps do not pose much direct danger, but certain varieties, such as the German wasp of North America, reach large sizes and can be incredibly aggressive. If they sense danger or notice an intrusion into their territory, they can sting repeatedly and very painfully. They will mark their aggressors and in some cases pursue them.

6. Black Widow

Although the sting of a female black widow spider can be very dangerous to humans due to the neurotoxins released during the bite, if the necessary medical attention is provided in time, the effects of the bite will be limited to only some pain. Unfortunately, isolated cases of death from the bite of a black widow still occurred.

7. Hairy Caterpillar

Caterpillars of the Megalopyge opercularis coquette moth look cute and fluffy, but don't be fooled by their cartoony appearance: they are extremely venomous.

Usually people believe that the hairs themselves are burning, but in reality the poison is released through the spikes hidden in this "wool". The spines are extremely brittle and remain in the skin after being touched. The poison causes burning around the affected area, headache, dizziness, vomiting, sharp pains in the abdomen, lymph node involvement, and sometimes respiratory arrest.

8. Cockroaches

The cockroach is known as a carrier of many diseases that are dangerous to humans. The main danger of living together with cockroaches is that they climb into toilet bowls, garbage cans and other places where bacteria accumulate, and as a result, they are their carriers. Cockroaches can cause a variety of diseases, from worms and dysentery to tuberculosis and typhoid. Cockroaches can carry fungi, single-celled organisms, bacteria, and viruses. And here's a fun fact - they can live for months without food or water.

10. Bed bugs

A person does not directly feel the bite itself, since the composition of the saliva of the bug includes an anesthetic substance. If the bug could not get close to the blood capillary the first time, it can bite a person several times. At the site of a bug bite, severe itching begins, and a blister may also appear. Occasionally, people experience a severe allergic reaction to a bug bite. Fortunately, 70 percent of people feel almost no effects from them.

Bed bugs are household insects and do not belong to the group of carriers of infectious diseases, however, in their body they can retain pathogens that transmit infections through the blood, such as viral hepatitis B, for a long time, pathogens of plague, tularemia, Q-fever can also persist. They cause the greatest harm to people with their bites, depriving a person of normal rest and sleep, which can subsequently adversely affect moral health and performance.

11. Human gadfly

12. Centipede

The centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) is an insect that is also called the flycatcher and is thought to have originated in the Mediterranean. Although other sources speak of Mexico. The centipede has become very common throughout the world. Although the appearance of such insects is unattractive, they generally perform useful work, as they eat other insect pests and even spiders. True, with entomophobia (fear of insects), such an argument will not help. Usually people kill them because of their unpleasant appearance, although centipedes are even protected in some southern countries.

The flycatcher is a predator, they inject the victim with poison and then kill it. Often flycatchers settle in apartments without harming food or furniture. They love moisture, often centipedes can be found in basements, under baths, in toilets. Flycatchers live from 3 to 7 years, newborns have only 4 pairs of legs, increasing them by one with each new molt.

Usually the bite of such an insect is not disturbing for a person, although it can be compared with a small bee sting. For some, it can even be painful, but usually it is limited to tears. Of course, centipedes are not insects that are responsible for thousands of deaths, but many of us would be surprised to learn that someone dies from these stings every year. The fact is that an allergic reaction to insect venom is possible, but this still happens extremely rarely.

Although scorpions do not belong to insects, as they belong to the order of arthropods from the class of arachnids, we nevertheless included them in this list, especially since black scorpions are the most dangerous species of scorpions. Most of them live in South Africa, especially often they can be found in desert areas. Black scorpions are distinguished from other species by their thick tails and thin legs. Black scorpions sting, injecting their prey with poison that can cause pain, paralysis and even death.

Paraponera clavata is a species of large tropical ants from the genus Paraponera Smith and the subfamily Paraponerinae (Formicidae) that have a strong sting. This ant is called a bullet for the reason that the bite victims compare it to a shot from a pistol.

A person bitten by such an ant may feel throbbing and relentless pain for days after the bite. In some local Indian tribes (Satere-Mawe, Maue, Brazil), these ants are used in very painful rites of initiation of boys to adulthood (which leads to temporary paralysis and even blackening of the stung fingers). During the study chemical composition poison, a paralyzing neurotoxin (peptide) called poneratoxin was isolated from it.

Also known as Phoneutria, Brazilian wandering spiders are venomous creatures that live in tropical South America and Central America. In the 2010 Guinness Book of Records, this type of spider was named the most venomous spider in the world.

The venom of this genus contains a powerful neurotoxin known as PhTx3. At lethal concentrations, this neurotoxin causes loss of muscle control and breathing problems, leading to paralysis and eventually suffocation. A bite of moderate pain, poison causes instant infection of the lymphatic system, entering the bloodstream in 85% of cases leads to heart failure. Patients feel wild stiffness during life, men sometimes experience priapism. There is an antidote that is on par with antibiotics, but because of the severity of the harm to the body of the poison, the detox procedure is actually equal to the chance of survival of the victim.

African bees (also known as killer bees) are the descendants of bees brought from Africa to Brazil in the 1950s in an attempt to improve honey production in that country. Some African queens have begun to interbreed with native European bees. The resulting hybrids moved north and are still found in Southern California.

African bees look the same and in most cases behave like the European bees that currently live in the United States. They can only be detected by DNA analysis. Their stings also do not differ from the sting of an ordinary bee. One very important difference between the two varieties is the defensive behavior of the African bees when defending their nest. In some attacks in South America, African bees have killed livestock and people. This behavior has earned the AMPs the nickname "killer bees".

In addition, this type of bee is known for acting like an invader. Their swarms attack the hives of the usual honey bee, invading them and setting up their queen. They attack in large colonies and are ready to destroy anyone who encroaches on their uterus.

Although the flea is not usually perceived as dangerous, fleas transmit numerous diseases between animals and humans. Throughout history, they have contributed to the spread of many diseases, such as the bubonic plague.

Fire ants are several related ants from the Solenopsis saevissima species-group of the Solenopsis genus, which have a strong sting and poison, whose effect is similar to a flame burn (hence their name). More often under this name appears the invasive red fire ant, which has spread throughout the world. There are known cases of human sting by one ant with serious consequences, anaphylactic shock, up to death.

The second spider on our list, the brown recluse, doesn't release neurotoxins like the black widow. Its bite destroys tissue and can cause lesions that take months to heal.

The bite very often goes unnoticed, but in most cases the sensations are similar to those of a needle prick. Then within 2-8 hours the pain makes itself felt. Further, the situation develops depending on the amount of poison that has entered the bloodstream. The venom of the brown recluse spider is hemolytic, which means it causes necrosis and tissue destruction. A bite for young children, the elderly and sick people can be fatal.

Siafu (Dorylus) - These army ants are mainly found in East and Central Africa, but have also been found already in tropical Asia. Insects live in colonies that can number up to 20 million individuals, all of which are blind. They make their travels with the help of pheromones. The colony does not have a permanent place of residence, wandering from place to place. In the course of movement to feed the larvae, insects attack all invertebrates.

Among these ants there is a special group - soldiers. It is they who can sting, for which they use their hook-shaped jaws, and the size of such individuals reaches 13 mm. The jaws of the soldiers are so strong that in some places in Africa they are even used to secure the seams. The wound may be closed for as long as 4 days. Usually, after a Siafu bite, the consequences are minimal, you don’t even need to call a doctor. However, it is believed that young and old people are especially sensitive to the bites of such ants, and deaths from complications after contact have been observed. As a result, annually, according to statistics, from 20 to 50 people die from these insects. This is facilitated by their aggressiveness, especially when protecting their colony, which a person can accidentally attack.

Many of us have seen bumblebees - they seem to be quite small, and there is little reason to be afraid of them. Now imagine a bumblebee that has grown up as if on steroids, or just look at the Asian giant. These hornets are the largest in the world - their length can reach 5 cm, and their wingspan is 7.5 centimeters. The length of the sting in such insects can be up to 6 mm, but neither a bee nor a wasp can compare with such a bite, and bumblebees can also sting repeatedly. Such dangerous insects cannot be found in Europe or the USA, but when traveling through East Asia and the mountains of Japan, you can meet them. To understand the consequences of a bite, it is enough to listen to eyewitnesses. They compare the sensation of a bumblebee's sting to a red-hot nail driven into the leg.

Sting venom has 8 different compounds that cause discomfort, damaging soft tissues and creating an odor that can attract new bumblebees to the victim. People who are allergic to bees can die from the reaction, but there are cases of death due to the poison mandorotoxin, which can be dangerous if it gets deep enough into the body. It is believed that about 70 people die from such bites every year. Curiously, the sting is not the main hunting tool of bumblebees - they crush their enemies with large jaws.

The tsetse fly lives in tropical and subtropical Africa, having chosen the Kalahari and Sahara deserts. Flies are carriers of trypanosomiasis, which cause sleeping sickness in animals and humans. Tsetse are anatomically very similar to their ordinary relatives - they can be distinguished by a proboscis on the front of the head and a special manner of folding wings. It is the proboscis that allows you to get the main food - the blood of wild African mammals. On this mainland, there are 21 species of such flies, which can reach a length of 9 to 14 mm.

You should not consider flies so harmless to humans, because they really kill people, doing it quite often. It is believed that in Africa up to 500 thousand people are infected with sleeping sickness, carried by this particular insect. The disease disrupts the activity of the endocrine and cardiac systems. Then amazed nervous system causing mental confusion and sleep disturbance. Attacks of fatigue are replaced by hyperactivity.

The last major epidemic was recorded in Uganda in 2008, in general, the disease is on the list of forgotten in WHO. However, in Uganda alone, over the past 6 years from sleeping sickness 200 thousand people died. It is believed that this disease is largely to blame for the deterioration of the economic situation in Africa. It is curious that flies attack any warm object, even a car, but they do not attack a zebra, considering it only a flash of stripes. Tsetse flies have also saved Africa from soil erosion and overgrazing caused by cattle.

Man came up with different methods control of these insects. In the 1930s, all wild pigs were destroyed on the west coast, but this gave a result only for 20 years. Now they fight by shooting wild animals, cutting down bushes and treating male flies with radiation in order to deprive them of the opportunity to reproduce.

FAKE STATUS: active
APPEARANCE: autumn 2016 a, Mexico

Apparently, the citizens of our vast Motherland became bored and some decided, out of boredom, to scare the population and their loved ones and distant ones with a new misfortune and dragged last year's fake on VKontakte, which somehow, apparently, did not receive much distribution (let's give credit to the admins of the group - at the time of writing this material, this already deleted):

We look - where and when it went:

In a standard manner "inform everyone, all the media are silent, almost everyone has died around the world and in our village" a message began to spread through Russian social networks " Attention! especially penetrated into Russia from India dangerous insect unknown until recently! Do not try to kill him with your hands - as soon as you touch him, you will instantly be struck by a terrible virus, from which there is no vaccine yet! Spread this message, take care of the kids!"

Panic notes are accompanied by creepy, unbearable pictures:

It seemed especially funny to us that in Mexico, in a number of cases, the RUSSIA TODAY channel was indicated as a source of information, and specifically its broadcast to South America:

As can be seen from the above picture, the comment is unambiguous - "Fake deadly bugs in Mexico: Disturbing news about deadly bugs in Mexico is spreading online and on multiple sites".

The photo on the right, which could easily pass as a frame from any horror movie or Photoshop user's imagination, has nothing to do with this article. This is the image that uses trypophobia, dislike for agglomerates of round objects, which we will discuss below.

The RT logo is also false, not a single material, article, video with this name in the Spanish-language direction of work can be found on the RT website.

The "new insect" is by no means new, but well known to everyone - the male bug of the Belostomatidae family. The water bug, which is one of the largest insects, reaches a length of up to 10 centimeters. In this family, the eggs laid by the female stick to the body of the male for the purpose of protection. These bugs do not suck blood as described in the article, however, they can sting when they feel threatened. That is, this photo has nothing to do with the panic article at all, and appears to have been used to heighten the fear caused by the similarity between the image of holes in the hand and the accumulation of eggs on the back of the male. Of course, for everyone brought up on the knowledge that aliens strive to get into a person and lay eggs there, unconscious and conscious fears and disgust immediately worked, which led in a number of cases to a nervously accidental pressing of the "repost" button.
How this and in whose head it "came to India" is no longer clear. It is strange that it has not yet spread from Kazakhstan in the spring, where for some reason they prefer to distribute fakes via WansUp:

Apparently, a classic phenomenon occurred - a certain insect of MICROSCOPIC (do you see a "microscopic insect" in the picture? It seems that experts recognized a bug in it, which, as written above, can reach 10 centimeters) sizes was indeed found in India. Then someone stuck an illustration to it that has nothing to do with the situation.

Let's compare the two texts and once again learn how to highlight manipulative emotional generalized phrases:

possible primary text of the message, in which there are no scientific contradictions

emotionally charged text with distortions that should raise questions from critical thinkers (highlighted in red)

Scientists have discovered a new type of poisonous insect that can kill a person.

Researchers have discovered a new species of poisonous insects in India. A small beetle has an unusual property, on contact it releases poison, which contains deadly components. The poison quickly penetrates the human skin and can be fatal.

Scientists note that the insect is very small, so it can be accidentally hurt or even crushed. The consequences of such contact can be sad. When poisoned, death occurs in just a few hours.

As long as it scary insect seen only in India, however no one knows where it suddenly came from, and therefore it is possible that this is another product of our "valiant scientists" in their terrible laboratories. And if so, then this "monster" can be found anywhere.

This little bug kills all living, including the human and much more insidious than all poisonous spiders, scorpions, and so on. It is enough for his "poison" to get on the skin, as he almost instantly seeps into the body and begins his destructive work there.

This not even venom, but some deadly virus that literally in a few minutes destroys the human body. In India, the alarm is already sounding, because the insect brings real horror to the inhabitants of this country: after all, it is small and almost imperceptible, it is easy to step on it barefoot, to clap out of habit with your bare hand. And this is enough to soon ... die in terrible agony.

So to everyone who is used to crushing insects with bare hands and who loves to walk barefoot, we can advise (so far only in India, but who knows how everything will turn out?) to reconsider their attitude towards poisonous insects: on our blue planet life is getting worse and worse. And Mother Nature herself is not to blame for anything.

But what do we have in scary pictures?

and here's what:

What is it?

If you feel disgust and fear at the sight of a honeycomb or a fungus sponge, you have trypophobia. Although, in fact, not everything is so simple. Let's figure it out.

The term trypophobia, or fear of clustered holes, comes from the Greek trypa, or hole. Fear arises in people suffering from this condition at the moment when they see something covered with small holes arranged in an asymmetrical pattern.

It is characteristic that a person suffering from a phobia feels a number of unpleasant symptoms at the sight of holes in cheese, washcloths, enlarged pores on the face, honeycombs and even a bar of aerated chocolate!

All objects that have numerous cluster holes in their structure, represent a huge discomfort for trypophobes.

Trypophobes are afraid of:

holes in the human body
holes in plants and animals
holes and multiple holes on food products
holes on inanimate objects: fossil, household, hygienic.
cluster holes formed as a result of human and animal life (earthworm passages)
graphic and digital images of multiple holes

It is noteworthy that trypophobes are not afraid of absolutely all objects that have cluster holes. So, a person suffering from a phobia may be afraid of a washcloth, but react quite calmly to holes in cheese or bread.

Experts say that this feature is due to the fact that trypophobes are only afraid of those things and objects from which danger is expected, which is directly related to certain causes of fear.

If at the sight of multiple holes and openings you experiencing the following sensations, then you are among the 10% of the world's inhabitants suffering from trypophobia:

pruritus

goosebumps

disgust

disgust

panic

fear that someone lives in the holes

increased sweating

allergic reactions on the skin

shortness of breath

pallor

dizziness

nausea

One of the psychologists named Jeff Cole he himself diagnosed trypophobia and began an intensive study of it. The scientist came to the conclusion that this fear is based on a variant of animal atavism and biological disgust - the fear that someone can live in the holes and carry a certain danger. After all, numerous holes and spotting are certainly present on the body of the most poisonous creatures on the planet and in their habitats. Our ancestors, as the scientist explains, determined the danger by these signs, and subconscious fear stopped them from a fatal step

Many psychologists suggest that, as such, the fear of multiple holes every person has. According to them, some show this fear, while others may not even be aware of it.

In addition, the stories of many people experiencing trypophobia lead researchers to believe that all fears come from childhood

So, one of the respondents said that in childhood he was bitten by a bee and his skin was so swollen that he saw every pore, and the other told how his parents were killed with a knife, the handle of which had cluster holes

Trypophobia on the skin: hello photoshop

Many, due to their ignorance, believe that trypophobia is skin disease, which consists in the formation of various holes on the human body. It's actually a mental disorder. is not a disease and formations on the body due to a phobia do not appear.

Really, "trypophobia in pictures" originates in 2005 . The growth of the disease was facilitated by the rapid development of digital photography, when everyone got the opportunity to take a large photo of an orange peel or coral. Plus, the rapid development of various 3D technologies has added fuel to the fire, you can learn more about them on the website. Today, one does not have to be a professional photographer or artist to quickly and easily create images that cause many people to trypophobic horror.

Especially popular among those who want to get scared are colorful photos of human skin, covered with trypophobic patterns. It might look something like this.

Such images cause unpleasant emotions in 30% of people. But it would be wrong to say that all these people suffer from trypophobia. After all, the images are really dangerous. Imagine that you met a person on the street who is actually covered in holes like this. Most likely he is very seriously ill and contagious. And it carries danger. And therefore, the fear caused by such hypothetical individuals in others is not of some morbid nature.

However, 16-18% of people in trypophobic horror are no longer photoshopped pictures of people's skin, but normal macro images of objects of living and inanimate nature.

So what scares us so much in the past of mankind? And here's what:

We also thought that "it would be better if we didn't see something here."

Well, the citizens also comment:

PLEASE TURN ON YOUR HEAD, DO NOT REACH THE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE WITHOUT TURNING ON THE HEAD AND DO NOT FORGET THAT THE SIGN OF A STANDARD FAKE IS EMOTIONAL CALLS "TELL EVERYONE! WARN EVERYONE! SAVE-HELP! AND MUCH, MUCH WAX PERSONAL SIGNS".

Niramin - Mar 8th, 2016

Tenrecs (lat. Tenrecidae) or bristly hedgehogs are a large family of mammals (10 genera and 24 species), whose homeland is Madagascar. Several species can be found in Central and East Africa. People brought the common tenrec to the islands in the Indian Ocean - the Seychelles (Mahe and Praslin), Reunion, Mauritius, Comoros.

These animals prefer places with dense vegetation and an abundance of foliage on the ground. Often they settle near swamps and small reservoirs. They avoid dry areas.

The body length of an adult tenrec, depending on the species, reaches 4-40 cm, and the tail - 1-22 cm. It is covered with fur (from grayish to red-brown), coarse hair or thorns. The muzzle is long, with small round eyes. Female and male bristle hedgehogs look the same.

Adult tenrecs are solitary, avoiding public life. In search of food, the animals can move far from their home - a mink dug in the ground or a hollow of a fallen tree. Activity is shown at night.

Males and females meet only from October to December for mating. The offspring are born after about 65 days, and in one brood there are up to 20 hedgehogs - a record in the world of mammals. After 6 months, they leave their mother, who raised them alone.

Tenrecs eat a variety of things. They eat both insects, snails and worms, as well as small mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The menu also includes fresh leaves and fruits.

In Madagascar, these animals are very fond of. They are valued as insect hunters and eat their meat. However, in the Seychelles and Reunion, where they were introduced by humans, they are considered pests that destroy the local ecosystem.

Photo: Common tenrec.

Photo: Striped tenrec.