In a Bug vs Human Battle Who Would Win?

In a one-on-one battle against the bugs that we encounter and many that we don't, you're probably confident that the confrontation ends with a squished creepy-crawly on your shoe while you walk away unscathed. Under those conditions, you'd probably be correct. However, if every bug on Earth banded together and decided that they would strategically take out humanity in an all-out war, chances are we wouldn't be so lucky. An estimated ten quintillion insects are walking the planet: that's 10 with eighteen zeroes after it. When you divide that by roughly seven billion people, it rounds out to an estimated 1.4 billion insects for every human. That doesn't take spiders or scorpions into account because they are arachnids rather than insects. If we can assume the average person weighs about 135 pounds, and an average insect such as an ant is just over one ten-thousandth of an ounce, the world's insect population weighs about 70 times more than we do. That's enough to keep many of us up at night.

Two European biologists, Martin Nyffeler and Klaus Birkhofer recently figured out how much food the world's entire spider population eats in a year. They used several different sources, and their findings were incredible. According to the two, all of the spiders on the planet combined would weigh approximately 25 million tons, that's the same as 278 aircraft carriers, and they consume an estimated 400-800 million tons of prey in a given year. The arachnids could easily devour the entire human race in about a year and still have room for dessert. The two also found that spiders eat about 10% of their body weight each day, which means it would take about 2,000 spiders one day to consume a 200-pound person. There are so many of them that a study in Raleigh, NC, showed that 100% of the homes had spiders in them. There is probably one watching you read this right now.

They are often referred to as the deadliest creature in the world, and mosquitoes deserve the title. It is estimated that they kill over a million people a year via malaria, yellow fever, and dengue. Their biomass in Alaska alone was calculated and was estimated at 96 million tons. That's a scary number considering that 6 pounds of Asian Tiger Mosquitoes could bleed a person completely dry in one day.

Ants are a wonder of collective actions. While on the prowl, colonies can create and maintain 40-50 living bridges, with about 20% of the colony partaking. If the total ant population in the world decided to make one big living bridge (average length times estimated number of ants), it would be about 15,782,828,282 miles long. One ant could take that bridge from the Earth to the Sun and back 87 times. When one tiny ant makes a run for it on the kitchen counter, just a fingertip of pressure can end the getaway, but keep in mind what can happen if his friends and friends of friends decide to gang up on you, especially if they are Fire Ants. One colony of them can kill and strip a deer in 4-6 weeks.

Thoughts of silent assassins conjure up visions of ninjas stealthily moving in and out of the shadows. One of them rarely needs backup, but there is a scarier assassin, and they can travel in bunches. The assassin bug is a quiet killer, and should they build an army, it would put the zombie apocalypse in the rearview mirror. There are over 7,000 species of them worldwide. It is hard to estimate their numbers, but working solo, they are responsible for about 12,000 deaths per year by transmitting Chagas disease. It could be that the next big arms race is more like a little legs race. 

The dung beetle walks merrily through life creating and pushing along his dung ball in search of a mate. It may not look like much, but it is capable of pulling over 1,100 times its weight. If they got together, chaos would ensue. Theoretically, 150 pounds of the beetle could pull over a 171,000-pound structure.

Our species is doing what we can to reduce the bug problems, and about 2 billion of us eat bugs in our daily diet. Luckily for residents of Charlotte, Troutman, and the surrounding areas, you don't have to go that far. At Ease Pest Solutions has got you covered. Our experts are waiting to handle your pest-induced headaches once and for all. Contact us today for an estimate.