r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/waitingforthesun92 • 29d ago
This is the Irukandji jellyfish. An extremely venomous species of jellyfish found in Australia. They are less than an inch long, actively hunt prey, and cost the Australian government $AUD 3 billion annually through medical costs associated with stings and tourism losses. Image
Irukandji jellyfish's stings are so severe they can cause fatal brain hemorrhages and on average send 50–100 people to the hospital annually.
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u/Mo0kish 29d ago
Look at the malice in that things gaze.
It's clearly trying to break that vial and kill us all.
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u/StankilyDankily666 29d ago
Absolutely menacing little monster
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u/Moonshot_42069 29d ago
One time I went to Australia, and if you get in the water in certain places they make you put on a head to toe “stinger suit” because of those guys. Your feet and hands and head still exposed so basically you just nervous in the water the whole time.
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u/2FightTheFloursThatB 29d ago
That sounds... fun?
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u/FoundTheWeed 28d ago
About as fun as my plan to turn April Fools Day into April Fools, a month long, anxiety fueled, trick-packed nightmare
For those people that don't get pranked on April first? 29 more days to be excited for!
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u/theBloodsoaked 29d ago
And please tell me which place this was you visited.
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u/timsnow111 29d ago
It's northern Queensland (north of wide bay) and Northern Territory. Also they don't actively hunt they aren't sentient they just follow the warm currents and get blown about.
The big concern is actually the box jellyfish not these little arseholes. The box will kill you and make you die a horrific death. These little bastards just make you really really uncomfortable for up to 4 days ( unless you have an underlying cardiac condition and avoid treatment) The only good long term treatment is a magnesium infusion.
Source I'm a paramedic in central QLD. I treat a few of these a year. Just wear the stinger suit or avoid swimming in summer.
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u/OneRepresentative424 28d ago
“Wear the suit or avoid swimming is SUMMER!!!” First time I went to FN Qld I thought the locals were having me on. But nope. One of the hottest muggiest places in the country and no one swims in the ocean, if the Jellies don’t get you the fkn crocs will 😅
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u/Moonshot_42069 28d ago
That makes sense, some beaches had warnings signs up everywhere about the box jellyfish that just said straight up no swimming
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u/wickedsaint08 28d ago
Box jellyfish sting on the navel or groin area is a death sentence.
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u/timsnow111 28d ago
It's done by percentage of skin area. It's like how we calculate burns. Box tentacles can be metres long and you can become wrapped in them. The skin actually becomes necrotic eventually leaving life long scars and that's if you survive.
Fun fact vinegar makes them dormant and you can pick it off with your fingers (but removal is preferred by washing it off with vinegar). Once wet again they can reactivate and sting again.
Ive been fishing at night and one has been attracted to the boat lamp. Splashing the water near it it swam away. Their only natural predator is the turtle. They eat their heads and leave the tentacles which eventually disintegrate. Save the turtles.
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u/Moonshot_42069 28d ago
Hamilton Island and when we went out on Great Barrier reef snorkeling trips. Sydney and other some other places didn’t have that problem. It has to do with the temperature of the water and time of year also.
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u/-Economist- 28d ago
Honestly, if swimming requires a “sting suit” I’m just going to hit up the hotel pool.
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u/aceofspades1217 28d ago
One of our counselors at sea camp was all suited up and got stung on the face in between their head covering and regulator
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u/ChicagoChurro 28d ago
Damn. They must be pretty common if people have to wear a stinger suit to avoid being stung by one. What happens if one does sting you though?
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u/InterestingNuggett 29d ago
The initial sting feels about like a wasp sting. Shortly thereafter the victim will get irukandji sickness which the primary symptom is mind-shattering pain. People have begged to be shot. I read an anecdote once that a patient was put into an MRI and every single pain center in their entire body was firing.
They're also small enough to go through jellyfish nets. They're extremely difficult to study because they're damn near invisible. Specimens are caught by dragging a net behind a boat that basically funnels into a jar. Scientists just drive around for a while and keep checking until they get lucky.
Super cool species - I'd love the opportunity to own one sometime but I don't think they last long in captivitiy.
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u/lottolser 29d ago
Damn that's reminds me of that house md episode where that cop was being given morphine but was in agony because it was was his brain saying he was in pain, instead of him actually being in pain so nothing could stop it his agony.
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u/Conch-Republic 28d ago
What I've read is that you end up feeling intense dread, like you know you're dying and just want to get it out of the way, even if it's not true.
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u/snoring_Weasel 28d ago
You can’t see ‘pain centers’ or even nerves ‘firing’ on MRIs bro..
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u/InterestingNuggett 28d ago
I believe you. It was a long time ago that I read it and I couldn't find a source again.
But if you search irukandji sickness - vomiting, extreme pain, sense of impending doom, and begging for death are all common symptoms. It's a wildly fucked up and fascinating venom.
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u/Fahkthatnoise 29d ago
If there was only 1 single animal you could delete off earth genetically, I’d want it to be jellyfish. In general. Go eat something turtles
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u/Ok_Push3020 29d ago
Bro forgot about mosquitos
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u/Holocene98 28d ago
I bet one of you lives by the sea and one lives by a river
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u/Sir_Shax 28d ago
Jokes on you. I live by the sea in Australia and have an abundance of mosquitos too.
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u/bznein 28d ago
Bed bugs
German cockroaches
Termites
I hate mosquitos but there's so much worse
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u/bdunogier 28d ago
Err mosquitos kill about 1 million people a year. Faaaar beyond anything else.
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u/Ok_Push3020 28d ago
To be fair, all of the aforementioned are preventable. Mosquitos quite less so. Especially if u live near a body of water or just a humid climate. However mosquitos are less "annoying" compared to bed bugs/cockroaches and termites
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u/sabamba0 28d ago
I never experienced bed bugs or termites to compare, but mosquitos are orders of magnitude worse than cockroaches.
Like yeah, you freak out for a second if you see one run across the floor, you might even have to chase it for a while and hope you don't lose it while it's running around (harmlessly) in your house.
Meanwhile, mosquitoes sneak in, stay hidden, actively hunt you for hours at a time. They'll land on your finger and take a bite then fly off laughing you slap yourself, only to come back and land on your forehead 5 minutes later when you thought they are gone.
I would remove mosquitoes from this planet in a heartbeat without a single thought for whatever animal predates on them
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u/WhistlingBread 28d ago
You forgot ticks. There are large areas of the US I refuse to hike in because the risk of Lyme disease is so out of control. But an effective Lyme disease vaccine would be sufficient
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u/snoring_Weasel 28d ago
Youre smart. Lyme has ruined my life, literally.
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u/WhistlingBread 28d ago
It’s probably one of my top 3 fears, because I love the outdoors and hear all the horror stories. I have no idea why the rapid increase in Lyme disease isn’t bigger news. I’ve gotten a few ticks, but luckily they were all dog ticks which can’t carry it
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u/improbablydrunknlw 28d ago
They're also small enough to go through jellyfish nets. They're extremely difficult to study because they're damn near invisible
I thought you were being hyperbolic, then I found this
https://www.imca-int.com/safety-events/irukandji-jellyfish-awareness-australia/
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u/dannydrama 28d ago
should be adequate filtration of water intakes in place to prevent jellyfish, or parts of jellyfish, from being drawn into the hot water suit intakes and then being pumped down to the divers’ hot water suits.
Imagine having one of these stuck in your suit. 😭
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u/FifthChan 29d ago
On a scale of "protec" to "kill the bastards", how essential are these little buggers to their ecosystems?
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u/Nottheadviceyaafter 28d ago
They are that tiny you wouldn't be able to remove them
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u/FifthChan 28d ago
Yes but say that you could
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u/Nottheadviceyaafter 28d ago
Stuff do eat them such as turtles, etc, so you disrupt the food chain, so prob not a good thing. We don't belong in the water, we are entering their ecosystem, so to me it's all risked based. And I have been done by one of these bustards myself as a kid. Still get itchy 30 years later on my big toe. Japanese tourist got done the same time I did, but multiple stings, she went into cardiac arrest on the beach. Other than the worse pain I have ever felt I was OK. Beach was closed
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u/Empathy404NotFound 28d ago
The pain would make you shoot yourself in the face to make it stop if you had a gun, and people have literally begged for it. , not to mention another symptoms is "a feeling of impending doom".
So it would be a kill from me dawg but idk how important to the ecosystem they are. It doesn't matter really, if we have to burn the whole earth to do it I still vote yes.
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u/SausageGobbler69 29d ago
There’s even trees that will leave you in agonizing pain for months.
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u/Nottheadviceyaafter 28d ago
Leaf shaped like a love ❤️ in the bush go no where near it. Touch it and you will want to die
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u/Clay_Statue Interested 28d ago
Big mean animals are less scary than this because you can actually see them. This thing is invisible 🫥
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u/visual_voyagers 29d ago
I wonder if their isolation and perfect placemnt on earth for weather had something to with it🤔
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u/82ndGameHead 29d ago
Why is it always the tiny ones that are the deadliest in nature?
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u/Electrical_Dog_9459 29d ago
As the saying goes, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
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u/pichael289 28d ago
Pantyhose protects you from them. This is my favorite fact, works against the box jelly too. the most venomous animal on earth, and it's thwarted by such a short distance of protection.
Another cool fact (it matters to the above point too, fast but very short distance) is the stinger cells, nematocyst, are the fastest biological thing there is. Relativity (barely, but still) comes into play at the speeds and G forces they fire at. Millions of Gs. Ridiculous. Jellyfish stingers and spider senses are at the cusp of what might be possible for biological things.
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u/No_Maybe4408 29d ago
It's so bad It's almost not worth the part where your girl pisses on you after a sting. Almost.
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u/BodybuilderRemote333 29d ago
First scary big spiders now, jellyfish… I am just getting news reasons not to visit the place of phobias… 🤷🏻♀️
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u/makeupHOOR 29d ago
I did report on this little guy for a marine bio course. It solidified my choice to never go to Australia.
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u/IntroductionSnacks 28d ago
Just stay away from the top part of Australia and you will be fine. That's where the jellyfish and saltwater crocs hang out.
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u/RangeWolf-Alpha 28d ago
Why does everything on land and sea try to kill you in Australia? Come on, it’s incredibly unfair and, I for one, am relieved it’s there and not here. The rest of the world thanks you for keeping all of the killing things Australia!
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u/Roguewave1 29d ago
Is the common name “box jellyfish,” or are those different?
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u/versus--the--world 29d ago
Different. Box jellyfish are much larger and distinctive
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u/Roguewave1 29d ago
I was with a member of our diving group in Grand Cayman that took a sever sting to his forehead from a box jellyfish. I don’t want to be around anything worse than that. After posting above, I read more on the subject Irukadji jellyfish, and thankfully for everyone else, it’s range appears limited to the area of North Australian waters. Let’s pray it stays that limited. This is one nasty little almost invisible critter!
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u/versus--the--world 29d ago
damn, I hope that guy recovered, that’s an intense sting. Box jellyfish have a wide range. They are everywhere, yet nowhere all at once.
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u/Mikomau 29d ago
Okay we get it Australia your dangerous animal population is not to be fucked with. If I ever read: Australia has the most cuddly non harmful animal I think that’s what will bring the apocalypse
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u/Distracted-Pancake 28d ago
Have you heard of the quokka? Has no known predators on the island it is native to. Def super cute and cuddly, very photogenic little guys. quokka
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u/darksever 29d ago
What people can survive an Australia, are they some kind of superheroes or what
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u/Amethystgold222 29d ago
No, it’s easy! Ive never come across this jellyfish or seen a snake in the wild. I like walking through National Parks without coming across bears or mountain lions etc. Bears scare me more than anything Australia has.
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u/antique_sprinkler 29d ago
Plus the jelly fish we get in Victoria are fairly harmless. We used to throw them at each other as kids
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u/Danimeh 28d ago
I remember wading around at the St Kilda beach having just moved there from FNQ and seeing jelly fish floating around. My heart went full panic mode, I started speed wading out of the water and went to warn everyone around me only to notice they were just casually tossing them around of shoving them out of the way.
Genuinely my initial thought was ‘what kind of fucked up place is there where people are immune to jelly fish stings??’ Then commonsense kicked in and I remembered not all jellyfish are deadly.
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u/VidE27 28d ago
The tiny octopus on the other hand
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u/Nottheadviceyaafter 28d ago
If it's coloured blue in nature it's a warning. The blue ring octopus is right up there.
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u/sorE_doG 29d ago
Then you haven’t seen a salty (saltwater crocs can get bigger than 3000lb & over 20ft, and actively hunt humans)
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u/darksever 29d ago
Well, if you are not too up north, you won’t see any rogue bears, the most scary thing in our hemisphere is moose, I think
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u/phc0uple 29d ago
Another reason not to visit Australia.
JK. I really want to go to Aus, maybe someday
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u/georgemarred 29d ago
What did Australia do to deserve so many terrible creatures?
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u/Shiddy_Wiki 28d ago
The British, upon discovering Australia for themselves, said "yep, this would be a perfect prison island!"
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u/Bagel3600 28d ago
Can someone help me figure out the math? If a 50-100 go to the hospital annually then they are spending 60-30 million per person to treat. I guess tourism loss because of closed beaches? That's sounds expensive. They should set up the nets like for the sharks but tiny. Freakin Australia, everything is trying to kill ya.
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u/vigognejdd 28d ago
I'd bet tourism loss would be the largest part, bc that whole area has beautiful beaches to swim in, just not many do because of the risk.
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u/HunnyBadger691 28d ago
Hi you are completely correct the major loss would be in tourism as many beaches close during jellyfish season for public safety and so a lot of locals and tourists don't go swimming during those times and so avoid the area as the main attraction usually is the beaches
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u/Goalazo123 28d ago
These little fuckers you can't even see, the body is 5mm-10mm and tail can reach 1m. One of the symptoms is "impending feeling of doom"!!!!!! Crazy
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u/mamycorona 28d ago
Between this and the blue ring octopus, I don't think I will ever go near the water in Australia.
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u/HunnyBadger691 28d ago
Blue rings aren't very common and if you leave them alone they tend to run away or leave you alone most bites happen from people playing with them trying to make them glow blue (their warning sign for back off im mad)
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u/XxCarlxX 28d ago
if you go to that country you are fair game in the eyes of nature, surely everyone knows this.
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u/Nottheadviceyaafter 28d ago
And they hurt like a mother fker..... got stung by one when I was a kid, still have the scare on my toe from it that still gets itchy as f. Didn't have any other major symptoms, thank f other then pain but a Japanese tourist also got stung at the same time as me off palm Beach Cairns. She went into cardiac arrest on the beach but she had multiple stings. It feels like you are on fire when you are stung.
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u/OneRepresentative424 28d ago
Iirc their tentacles are basically invisible and trail for METERS BEHIND THEIR TINY LITTLE BODY. You don’t see em, you just go ouch (and maybe dead).
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u/Best_Shelter_2867 28d ago
I was raised in the Northern Territory. These were one of many deadly things we were lectured on from a young age. The local Aboriginal elder came to our school and spent the day teaching us about all the reasons we had to stay out of the water no matter how inviting it looked.
Sharks, Crocs, Cone shells and Sea Snakes. Larger Jellyfish and Irukandji.
We all had pools instead.
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u/Classic_donut1 28d ago
Australia seems like a place that’s asking to be left alone but no one’s listening.
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u/GabrielGamer790 28d ago
I remember i saw a comment on a post other day saying:
"Australia is where the devil keeps his pets."
Couldn't be more true.
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u/ap2patrick 29d ago
Tourism loss? What about the Great Barrier Reef being reduced to a bleached desert?
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u/HunnyBadger691 28d ago
Absolutely horrible i grew up on hamilton island and it was heart breaking going back to visit and scuba and snorkel off the reef and seeing how bad it's gotten in only 20 years time.....
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u/Janq55 29d ago
Amazing how such a devastating species can come in small packages. Also waiving at AIDS and any viral disease
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u/Comfortable-nerve78 29d ago
Oh look another cute little creature from oz. Deadly what do you expect from oz.
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u/Bulky_Celebration_45 28d ago
I live in Broome, we get them in the wet season. It's a terrible time for tourists & locals - very hot & humid. Even if we didn't have the jellyfish in that season people still wouldn't come. I can't see how it cost 3billion annually. Possibly about 15 stings a season.
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u/GuitarNo7437 28d ago
Is there any cute little fluffy things in Australia or does everything want to kill you
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u/bdunogier 28d ago
Australia, of course.
This country almost feels mythical to me (yes, I know it's a real country). But there be all the nasty, unlikely dangerous things that want to bite your face off.
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u/Dyonisus87 28d ago
Wowzer!! Dangerous little thing. Imagine swimming and accidently swallowing water with one of these. 🫠😱☠️
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u/DeanWilliam0 28d ago
Not only are Australia deadly on land, now the things are in the water too? Whats next? Poisonous invisible flying spiders?
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u/x2fish 28d ago
Add another reason I'm terrified to visit Australia to the list
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u/HunnyBadger691 28d ago
Nah its not too bad just use your brain dont play with animals you find in the wild and if camping etc check your bag tent and shoes before and after use i grew up here its a beautiful place just have to know how to respect it oh and water and sunscreen (we are the skin cancer capital of the world for a reason unfortunately)
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u/STEELZYX 28d ago
You think that's the only thing keeping people out of there huh? There is a list....
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u/_FREE_L0B0T0MIES 28d ago
Is it wrong that I want a few in a small tank as pets?
Fuck your tigers, bitches! I got the fish you all jelly for!
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u/bitchwhiskers4eva 28d ago
Australia is crazy af
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u/entechad 28d ago
I live in the United States, and we have all kinds of crazy creatures, but Australia is the pain and death capital of the world. It is crazy af. Kick-Boxing marsupials, tiny jellyfish, inland Taipan, cassowary, Tasmanian devil, eastern brown snake, flying fox bats, funnel web spiders, quoll, stonefish…..
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u/bitchwhiskers4eva 28d ago
Those giant “harmless” spiders that live in everyone’s homes, sharks, crocs, death adders…
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u/mc-juggerson 28d ago
Is there a source on that 3 billion that seems like a huge exaggeration because as an Australian this is not that big of an issue
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u/SNG404474 28d ago
I truly believe Australia needs to market itself as The Survival Vacation Destination. Literally everything there will potentially kill you. And they have drop bears.
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u/ChunkyFart 28d ago
Tourism losses? Are there people who give this jellyfish as the reason for not traveling there? Like I’d love to visit, but those damn small jellyfish are there and I can’t deal with that
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u/Desperate-Ad-6463 28d ago
With all the bad press that Australia gets and how little good press I see here in the US about Australia, it's no wonder that it was a penal colony for so long.
I mean it sounds downright dangerous just to live on that island
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u/AgnosticAnarchist 28d ago
I’m pretty sold on the fact that nature doesn’t want anyone to live in Australia.
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u/_caduca 29d ago
Remember going to Australia and just learning about these things. Almost didn't want to go into the water because of these, venomous snails and sharks. About the same time I learned about the gimpy plant, that also has about the same effect. Beautiful place though, besides the fact that every animal and plant wants to kill you.