The Top Ten scariest things in nature

When it comes down to what someone would consider to be scary it all depends on that person’s own perception of fear, but there are some things out there that would make just about anyone run for the hills. Here are ten of the scariest things in nature that’ll make you think twice about that trip abroad.

Lamprey

This fish comes in two versions which are the European Lamprey and the Pacific Lamprey, with the latter being up to three times bigger. The fish swims like an eel and attaches itself to prey using its powerful sucker-like mouth, It then proceeds to scrape away at its prey with the larger inner teeth and rip small chunks of meat into its mouth. When attached the fish grips on with the smaller outer teeth as well as using suction to stay in place, making them extremely harmful to remove without tearing off a piece of skin.

Candiru

Found only in the central and northern areas of South America, this tiny fish may not look scary but can cause one of the most painful deaths you can experience. It’s a type of parasitic fish that belongs to the catfish family and it’s attracted to ammonia, the source of which is often urine. If you pee in a body of water that contains these fish they will sense the ammonia and try to find the source, which will be your genitals. They will then swim up through your, erm, bits and enter your bladder where they will die and start to decompose. They have the ability to grip with their gills and can’t be removed by anything other than surgery, so if you don’t get to a hospital fast enough you can expect to die by rotting from the bladder outwards.

Volcanoes

These are some of those things that aren’t terrifying unless you’re in its path but they normally only erupt every few decades, but when they do the destruction is almost unmatched. The largest known eruption by death toll happened in 1815 when Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted and killed close to 250,000 people, but since then the next closest number was Mount Krakatoa in 1883 which killed 36,000. Looking at a volcano on TV you know you’re safe, but having to run for your life from liquid rock as it burns your home and neighbors to ash in seconds must be like getting chased by hell itself.

Tidal Waves

Tidal waves are situational and only happen when something triggers them like an earthquake. Unlike earthquakes, they are considerably more dangerous as the average death toll is 79 people per 1000 affected, with earthquakes causing only 4 deaths per 1000 affected. In 2004 a large ground tremor caused a tidal wave in the Indian Ocean that caused 126,473 confirmed deaths across several countries and left over 100,000 people missing. If you are caught in a tidal wave you are almost 20 times more likely to die than from getting hit by an earthquake.

Giant Squid

Basically a sea monster, the giant squid is one sea creature that we know very little about. They live very deep in the black areas of the ocean that are too deep for any light to reach and they prey off anything big enough to provide them with a good meal. The size of the giant squid is probably exaggerated but the most agreed-upon biggest size is thought to not exceed 12 meters in length.

Mutations

Nature has the world pretty well-organised and everything grows as it should, but every once in a while things don’t quite develop as intended. A mutation is when the DNA is damaged or doesn’t transfer fully from the parent host causing the affected animal to grow out of proportion and sometimes become horribly disfigured. Sometimes it’s not too bad or even beneficial, but most of the time it causes extremely difficult or impossible living conditions.

Hurricanes

Hurricanes don’t kill many people when compared to certain creatures out there or other disasters, but the damage and lasting effects they have make them devastating forces of nature. The deadliest hurricane in American history happened in 1900 when the great Galveston storm ripped through several towns and killed 12,000 people. Normally they don’t kill more than 100 people but have caused hundreds of billions worth of damage, making them the most expensive type of weather to deal with.

Giant isopod

This is an alien race sent to Earth to eradicate human life and establish a new planet filled with nothing but shellfish. It’s technically just another crustation and lives very deep within the ocean, usually only caught in deep sea pots and the occasional fishing trawler. They aren’t actually dangerous and just go about their days walking along the sea bed eating bits of plant matter and being creepy as hell.

Goliath tiger fish

If you thought piranhas were bad then take a look at this thing. They live in the warmer areas of the world and are especially common in southeast Asia and Central Africa where they are the only freshwater fish known to attack humans. Normally they prefer going after fish and small game like ducks and birds but if local food sources are low they won’t think twice about taking a bite out of someone’s leg.

Mosquitoes

The most annoying creature on the planet, stopping countless people from getting a good night’s sleep and killing around 1 million people each year. To look at they don’t seem too scary, but when compared to the estimate for global deaths from human murders which normally averages just under 500,000 a year, this makes you statistically twice as likely to be killed by a mosquito than from being murdered by another person.