What animal scares the crap out of you?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m normally not prone to getting spooked by anything, let alone animals. When I see an animal I normally want to know more about it’s behavior.

That being said, having read up a bit on the subject,the thought of being in the water with a Humboldt Squid scares the crap out of me. I’d much rather swim around with some great whites, or go mano a mano with a lion.

This got me wondering. If you had to face off with an animal in it’s natural environment, what would be your last choice?

2

Portuguese Man-of-War. But I guess it’s not technically an “animal:” http://web.orst.edu/~schwerdt/Manowar.html

3

animals that have rabies
poisonous snakes and bugs

[shudder]

4

Bees. And Wasps.

(Shudder.)

5

Just about anything with more than 6 legs. Unless it’s boiled and served on a plate in front of me with drawn butter and a lemon wedge. And it’s a snow crab.

6

any dog that is not attached by a stout cord/chain/leash etc. to either its owner or a pole.

Even then I am not comfortable around them.

And I have the scar tissue to show why.

7

Well, the all-time creepiest animal Ive ever seen is a centipede. It doesnt even have to be one of those huge rainforest ones. Just the little black ones with yellow stripes. heebiejeebies!

I think im most scared of Alligators… I have nightmares about them.

Casey

8

Those worms that cause elephantiasis and have to be removed from your body a centimeter at a time by wrapping them around a stick or they’ll break and die and rot and cause gangrene.

shudder

9

Nothing meaner than the infamous blue-eyed, yellow-haired, biped from the flatlands of Wooster, OH. Known for it’s violent and unpredictable nature, it is never satisfied no matter how hard you try to appease it. Ironically, this bloodthirsty animal is also one of the prettiest to look at. Shiny coat, bright eyes, splendid hind quarters, and well developed chest, all combined with an initially disarming meek disposition, makes you want to bring it home to cuddle. I did.

It’s only then that you’ve fallen pray to its astute trap. The blood curling screams directed in your direction are usually the first sign that all is not well in paradise, but that is only the beginning, as this is a tale of unspeakable horror. So much so, that I best stop here.

Rest assured, nothing you can possibly imagine could possibly come close to the real thing.

You’ve been duly warned…don’t marry my ex!

10

Hmm, how about those botflies in South America that lay eggs in your skin, so a few weeks later you have inch-long maggots crawling around in there?

11

Little inch-long maggots, just in skin in general? Feh.

The candiru fish, no question, no contest. Wanna go skinnydipping in the Amazon? No thank you!

12
      • Years ago there was a spot along a local creek where for some reason, leeches were rampant. Big 3-inch long, olive-green tops, grey bottoms, 6 inches extended. If you walked near the water, brushing through the nearby plants, baby 1-inchers would start inch-worming theyr way towards you across the plant leaves. The creepier thing was that if you were wading in the water, big 3-inchers would drop off the plants into the water, and start swimming around, mostly towards you. Serpentine, like snakes, side-to-side. Slowly, casually… dozens of them. Similar to the opening scenes of the X-files movie (but not nearly as fast).
  • It’s kind of a funny story, looking back: this happened when I was in eight grade. I was wading with a couple other guys, and we stopped in the middle of a fairly big -say, 30’ across “pool” in the creek, maybe a foot deep, and at the same moment, each of us pointed to where each saw leeches falling into the water and said “hey, look at that…”
    Then we looked at each other, and saw we were looking in three different directions, and were all seeing the same thing.
    And freaked!
    We all got out unleached, not like in Stand By Me. Nobody got nut-leeched. Scared us sheetless just the same. I don’t think any of us ever went back to that spot again.
    ~
  • I would guess that fearing a deadly animal isn’t so ridiculous, but you feel so much dumber when you piss yer shorts over some (tiny) critter that you’d normally just step on and forget about… - MC
13

Any bug with legs that you can feel gripping onto your skin. triple shudder And the ones I’m most likely to run into are those big cockroaches that fly around and into my room once every few months.

Thankfully where I live no animals can kill you on land. No bears, cougars, black widows or other such creatures. Water is different. I am deathly afraid of water where I can’t see the bottom, about 10 feet deep is all I go. And if a shark popper up man that water would turn a nice green color right quick. You ever seen “The Toy?” That’s what I’d do.

14

Bats! :eek: They’re just rats with wings. Maybe they freak me out because during the summer I get buzzed by at least one while I’m standing out on the porch late at night. And then people point out to me that bats don’t normally buzz people … except rabid bats.

15

Wasps are about the only ones I have an unusual fear of.

16

Hmmm…this is a hard one. I think it would be fish in the lake(or whatever is down at the bottom). I can just imagine it swimming up to my painted toe- and fingernails and suck on them, trying to bite them off. Ewwww…And my sister once told me that a catfish bit some guy and he was pretty badly mangled. I didn’t want to ski anymore. Ooooo, and those carp are just plain ugly!

Spiders scare the bejeebers out of me (brown recluse bit me). Oh, and ticks (been bitten several times). And bees and mosqu…hey, I think everything except houseflies and ants are scary. What can I say? I’m a wuss.

Any large animal charging at me would be pretty scary, too.

17

I hate yappy dogs, growling dogs, and in fact any dog when it’s looking at me. I was once a mail carrier, and I discovered the only dogs that don’t snap at your heels are the ones that are sleeping.

18

I’m not scared of snakes (had one for a pet once), but if you’re talking about facing off against an animal in it’s habitat… more if you’re saying you were to be attacked and killed by one, I wouldn’t want to end up as giant snake food. Like being dinner in the eyes of an anaconda or reticulated python while wading through the marsh one warm evening. I saw a show on anacondas once, where they were catching and studying them, and one guy got bit. It took 4 or 5 people to hold the snake down while they worked his hand free from the teeth for about 5 minutes(they’re made to hold, not injure). Had he been alone, he would have either lost the hand or his life. The idea of being constricted and slowly suffocated by a giant rope of muscle isn’t too pleasant; what must that be like for the X # of minutes it takes to die? Being concious and helpless and feeling the life being sqeezed out of you is just bad. I’d rather be ripped in two by a great white or poisoned by a rattler than that.

19

Sharks

<shudder>

20

parasitic worms, mostly. spiders get a jump from me, too, as do snakes (hey, they ain’t poisonous fer nuthin!) but if i positively identify them as nonpoisonous, i pick 'em up and freak someone out with 'em :smiley:
i’ll go with niwroc with portugese man o wars… always check the beach for jellyfish before going in… :sheepish grin:
otherwise, i love animals! (especially centipedes… heyyyy, i know what to get Casey Primate for his/her/its birthday! :verrry evil grin:)
d&r